AIDS Drugs Offered Free in Brazil

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Drugs Offered Free in Brazil

Christian Science Monitor (www.csmonitor.com) (12/06/00) P. 6
Downie, Andrew

The Brazilian government has found a way to reduce the price of AIDS medicines so far that it can afford to cover the cost for its 90,000 HIV-positive citizens, though the practice has enraged the multinational drugmakers that developed the medicines. Brazil reduced the cost of HIV-fighting regimens from $12,000 per year to $4,500 per year by reverse- engineering the medicines and changing the production method very slightly, a practice that is legal in some developing nations but illegal in most developed countries. The result is that pharmaceutical companies in Brazil, Thailand, and India make the same drugs at much lower prices than are charged by the drugs' creators and undercut those prices, taking business away from the original maker. While industry groups like the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and individual drug companies like Abbott Laboratories of Brazil are concerned about the profit that is being taken from the companies and the quality of the marked-down drugs, activist groups and government organizations note that, in the end, it is the patient who benefits and the greater good of the public is maintained.
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