Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Friday, November 14, 2003
According to the ministry, Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to concede Brazil a 76.4% discount on the anti-AIDS drug Atazanavir.
"It heralds a breakthrough in the relationship between the government and the drug companies," said press officer Eliane Izolan. "It demonstrates that it is possible to provide health inputs in developing countries in line with the socio-economic situation."
Brazil has one of the world's most progressive anti-AIDS programs, providing a cocktail of anti-AIDS medicines free of charge to anyone who needs them.
But the program is also controversial since Brazil makes its own generic versions of many drugs ignoring patents issued before 1997 when the country signed an intellectual property law in order to join the World Trade Organization.
More recently, Brazil has threatened to strip the patents on newer AIDS drugs whose prices it considers abusive.
So far, Brazil has never stripped a patent of any of the newer drugs though it has recently threatened to do so on drugs made by pharmaceutical manufacturers Roche, Abbott Laboratories and Merck & Co.
The three drugs made by those three companies alone account for 63% of the country's anti-AIDS budget.
On Friday, the ministry said negotiations with those companies were continuing.
Brazil managed to obtain the discount for Atazanavir without threatening to strip its patent.
Under the deal, Brazil will purchase each capsule of Atazanavir for $3.25, well below the manufacturer's price of $13.80.
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