AEGiS-PRn: AIDS Healthcare Foundation Criticizes Abbott Labs for increasing Price from Roughly $250 per Bottle to Nearly $1200

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation Criticizes Abbott Labs for increasing Price from Roughly $250 per Bottle to Nearly $1200

PRNewswire - December 16, 2003

LOS ANGELES -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest AIDS organization in the US which operates clinics in the US, Africa and Central America, today criticized Abbott Labs for their recent five-fold price increase on their key protease inhibitor, Norvir(R), effective December 3, 2003.

"Abbott has instituted an huge price increase on its key AIDS drug, Norvir(R), from a cost of roughly $250 per bottle to nearly $1200 per bottle," said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation president. "Yet Abbott's newer drug, Kaletra(TM) -- which has Norvir(R) as a key ingredient and is the least expensive protease inhibitor per dose currently on the market -- is still priced the same. This is purely a marketing ploy to push for a larger market share for Kaletra(TM) by driving providers and patients to this cheaper Abbott combination therapy and the HIV community as a whole should unite and speak out against Abbott's bald-faced greed."

Given that many physicians are now dosing Norvir(R) as a boosting agent, in reality what Abbott has done is price Norvir(R) to generate the same dollar profit per 30-day prescription that they would have normally gotten per 120 capsule bottle. By their own statements regarding pricing, Kaletra(TM), which has ritonivir, or Norvir(R), as one of its ingredients, did NOT suffer a price increase.

Abbott alleges that there was no price increase to ADAP or their 340b, public health pricing, or any other government funded purchasing. This indicates that there is no actual increase in production or manufacturing cost, but merely a profit move by Abbott whose cost will be paid by the consumer and the insurance companies.

CONTACT: Ged Kenslea, AHF Communications Director, +1-323-860-5225

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