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Controversial legislation approved by the lower house of India's parliament on 22 March could drastically increase the cost of cheap HIV drugs and other medicines the country produces, according to international humanitarian organisations. The law threatens to affect the provision of healthcare to hundreds of thousands of patients, many of them in Africa, for whom low-cost Indian drugs are the only affordable means of treating AIDS. The new patents bill is intended to bring India's patent regime into line with the World Trade Organization's (WTO) agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (known as TRIPS), one of the conditions of India's membership of the WTO.