Drug Companies and Poor Countries Battle Over Anti-HIV Drug Prices

The invaluable Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report has a number of articles in the about the ongoing battle between the paharmaceutucal industry who produce life-saving medications and the people who need them.

In Thailand, one day after failing to come to a price agreement with Abbott Laboratories about its anti-HIV drugs Aluvia and Kaletra, the Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla announced that the country will not issue compulsory licences to produce low-cost versions of anti-retroviral drugs as long as pharmaceutical companies match the price of generic versions of those drugs.

The Thai government in November 2006 and January [2007] issued compulsory licenses to produce lower-cost versions of Merck's antiretroviral Efavirenz and Kaletra, respectively. Since then, the government and drug companies have continued negotiations. Abbott earlier this week offered to sell Aluvia at a reduced price in Thailand on the condition that the country agrees not to allow generic versions of the drug into the market, Siriwat Thiptaradol, secretary-general of Thailand's Food and Drug Administration, said. Abbott offered to sell Aluvia for about 34,000 baht, or $1,000, per person annually. Indian generic drug maker Matrix Laboratories has offered to sell a generic version of Aluvia to Thailand for 24,324 baht, or $695, per person annually. Siriwat said that the offer would be considered by Mongkol. Under the terms of the offer, Thailand would have to agree not to seek compulsory licensing for Aluvia and the price of Aluvia could not be reduced any further (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/15). According to Reuters Alertnet, Aluvia is needed in Thailand because it is a heat-stable version of Kaletra and eliminates the need for costly refrigeration (Reuters AlertNet, 5/15).

The recent actions of Thailand and Brazil are being noticed by other pharmaceutical companies. Boehringer Ingelheim announced on Tuesday May 15 that it will sell its anti-retroviral drug nevirapine at a reduced price of 50% or 90% below it's previously announced prices, depending on the relative wealth of the country. Nevirapine is a widely used drug to dramatically reduce the rate of transmission of HIV from pregnant mothers to their newborn children. When the drug is given in pill form to HIV-positive mothers during the end of their pregnancy and labor and to the baby in syrup form within 72 hours of birth it is found to reduce the transmision of HIV from mother to child.

[T]he drug will cost 60 cents per patient daily in 78 low-income countries and $1.20 per patient daily in 67 middle-income countries. In developed countries, the drug costs between $10 and $14 per patient daily. The company also will waive a 5% royalty fee, reporting requirements and other existing obligations for generic drug producers that have World Health Organization approval to make nevirapine using voluntary licenses.

The story doesn't clarify which countries will qualify as "low-income" and which will qualify as "middle-income." Regardless, Mad Professah is happy to see that countries standing up to drug companies is starting to result in drug companies making their drugs cheaper to more people which will save many lives around the world.

PhRMA Wins Another One, Everyone Else Loses

David Sirota of the WorkingforChange blog reports about the vote on Monday in the United States Senate on a poison-pill amendment to Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)'s S. 1082, the Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2007:

The Associated Press reports "In a triumph for the pharmaceutical industry, the Senate killed a drive to allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from abroad at a significant savings from domestic prices." The legislation to allow imports of FDA-approved medicines from other industrialized nations (a practice used by other industrialized nations themselves) was sponsored by North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan (D) and has long been supported by the vast majority of the American public in opinion polls.

Yet right there on the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday afternoon, 49 senators [including 16 Democrats] voted through a poison pill amendment, invalidating Dorgan's legislation and protecting drug industry profiteering. The sheer disregard for the truth and for consistency when it came to both the policy and politics of this vote was, in a word, stunning.

So, despite recent good news like Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva refusing to pay price-gouging amounts for anti-HIV meds from Merck and former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton and his charitable foundation's success at negotiating lower-cost meds for second-line anti-HIV treatment for patients in low- and middle-income countries to a mere US$339 per person per year, in the United States the pharmaceutical companies are running "buck wild."

Brazil Puts HIV+ People Before Patents

365gay.com is reporting that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued a "compulsory licence" on Friday May 4th which would allow the country to bypass Merck's patent on the anti-retroviral drug Efavirenz in order to produce generic version of the medicine which it will distribute free to HIV+ Brazilians. The BBC reported:

Merck offered Brazil almost a third off the cost - pricing the pills at $1.10 instead of $1.59.

But Brazil wanted its discount pegged at same level as Thailand, which pays just $0.65 per pill.

Now, though, it will source Indian-made versions of Efavirenz for just $0.45 each.

Nearly 75,000 Brazilians use Efavirenz although the country distributes free anti-HIV drugs to 180,000 of its citizens. By issuing the compulsory licence, Brazil is likely to save $240 million between now and 2012 when the Merck patent for the drug expires, the Brazil Health Minstry exstimates.

The evil Michael Weinstein, executive director of the equally monstrous AIDS Healthcare Foundation, agrees with Mad Professah (just this once!) that Brazil is doing a wonderful thing by putting patients before patents (and profits). "We salute the courage of countries such as Brazil, Thailand and Mexico who are fighting to ensure drug access for AIDSpatients the world over. Today is a victory for AIDS activists and patientseverywhere, and proof that drug companies will go down in defeat every time they place themselves in the way of justice for AIDS patients."