BRASILIA, Aug 21 (AFP) - Brazilian authorities threatened Thursday to break patents on three key anti-AIDS drugs unless their makers agree to lower their prices.

The threat against the pharamaceutical firms Abbott Laboratories, Merck and Roche is part of a negotiating tactic Brazil has frequently used to get lower prices on the drugs it distributes free to AIDS patients in the country.

"We are evaluating the legal implications of the presidential decree on patents in case the three drug companies we are negotiating with fail to reduce the prices of the three medicines that interest us," said Alexandre Grangeiro, director of the Brazilian AIDS Program.

Brazil's Health Ministry has since the beginning of the month been negotiating with the three drug makers to reduce the prices of Lopinavir, Nelfinavir and Efavirenz, three of the 14 drugs provided free to Brazil's 135,000 AIDS sufferers.

Grangeiro said the current cost of the drugs threatens the viability of Brazil's free distribution program, and warned that Brasilia might move to break the patents if an agreement is not reached by August 30.

Roche, the Swiss manufacturer of Nelfinavir, had agreed two years ago to cut the drug's price by 40 percent to avert a threat to its Brazilian patent. The Brazilian government had threatened at the time to manufacture a generic version of Nelfinavir if the price it paid for the drug was not reduced.

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