AEGiS-AP: Roche cuts prices of its AIDS drug to poor countries

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

Roche cuts prices of its AIDS drug to poor countries

Associated Press - Thursday, February 13, 2003

BASEL, Switzerland -- Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche said Thursday it will slash the price of its AIDS drug Viracept for sub-Saharan Africa and poor countries elsewhere.

The company said it was offering "no profit" prices for delivery direct from its Swiss factory, starting March 1.

The offer brings the price of Viracept down to about US$900 per year, only 15 percent of what the company charges in Switzerland. Roche also cut prices of Invirase, another protease inhibitor -- a drug that cripples an enzyme the HIV virus needs to reproduce.

"Our revised policy demonstrates Roche's commitment to the fight against HIV and to further accelerate access to care in these African and least-developed countries," said William M. Burns, head of Roche Pharma, the Swiss manufacturing arm of the company.

"The no profit prices direct from Roche Basel are the lowest prices at which the products can be provided in a sustainable manner," the company added.

"They do not reflect research or development costs, marketing costs, distribution costs or company overheads."

Nobel Peace Prize-winning aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres welcomed the announcement and said it had been putting pressure on Roche for some time.

Though Roche has joined a pharmaceutical companies initiative to reduce prices of AIDS drugs in poor countries, until now the reduction has only been around 40 percent while other companies were offering cuts of up to 92 percent, MSF said. In some countries, such as Guatemala and Ukraine, the cost of Viracept was higher than in rich Switzerland.

The 85 percent reduction puts Roche in line with offers made by other pharmaceutical companies.

MSF, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, said it had taken a long time to persuade Roche to act.

"The long struggle to reduce the price of this Roche drug is proof of the limitations of a fully voluntary system. For new drugs there needs to be an internationally supported enforceable system that reduces prices to affordable levels in developing countries."

Around 40 million people around the world are infected with the HIV virus, and 28 million of those live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations. ^(nk-agh)

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