Bay Area Reporter - April 6, 2001
Liz Highleyman

Drug companies have received considerable international pressure and negative publicity in relation to the suit, and several companies have recently announced concessions that will allow greater access to AIDS drugs for poor countries.

On March 27, Abbott Laboratories announced that it would reduce prices on two AIDS drugs and its Determine brand HIV antibody test for countries in Africa. Abbott said it would provide its protease inhibitors ritonavir (Norvir) and lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra) at no profit. Although the company did not announce specific prices, it said the new costs would be in line with those of other AIDS drugs in Africa, less than $1,000 per person annually. In the U.S., ritonavir costs $7,100 and lopinavir costs $6,500 per person per year.

Said Abbott chairman and chief executive Miles White, "Abbott has taken this action to give the people most affected by this disease a better opportunity to access care. The next step in the global response is to develop the infrastructure necessary to deliver effective treatment."

Abbott has hired Irish consulting firm Axios International to provide the drugs and HIV test to governments and agencies that have the resources to distribute them. James Love, of the Consumer Project on Technology, said that Abbott's initiative "is a step in the right direction, but it is fairly limited," emphasizing that poor countries outside Africa also need affordable medications.

In other drug patent news, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Cuban President Fidel Castro signed an agreement in Havana on March 26 stating that the two countries would cooperate in producing low-cost generic AIDS drugs. Said Mbeki following the meeting, "We are very interested in the question of affordable drugs and medicines. The matter is critical to the provision of sufficient and adequate health care to our people." Cuba is not a participant in global trade agreements that regulate patents and intellectual property, and Castro has expressed support for South Africa's efforts to manufacture or import cheap generic versions of patented drugs [see story, page TK].

Also last week, Merck and Company offered Brazil lower prices for two of its AIDS drugs, indinavir (Crixivan) and efavirenz (Stocrin, marketed in the U.S. as Sustiva). Brazil was not included among the poorest countries that were previously offered drug price reductions. Brazil maintains a model treatment program that provides medications to all its citizens with AIDS, and already produces generic equivalents of several anti-HIV drugs. Brazilian officials said in February that the country would begin producing efavirenz and Agouron's nelfinavir (Viracept) in June if prices were not reduced. The new price for indinavir will be about $2.80 per person per day. Brazilian health officials called the price reduction "a victory in a year-long battle with foreign drug makers to cut the prices of vital AIDS-fighting medicines," but Paulo Teixeira of the country's AIDS program said that Brazil's "attempt to master the process for producing [efavirenz] and other drugs will continue." Earlier in the week, Merck threatened to sue Brazil's Far-Manguinhos laboratory for patent violations for importing a generic version of efanirenz from India for research purposes.

Finally, on Thursday, April 12, ACT UP/Philadelphia and other AIDS activists will hold a demonstration at the office of the new U.S. trade representative, Robert Zoellick, in Washington, D.C. ACT UP's actions against the Clinton administration's trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, and against former Vice President Al Gore are credited in part with Clinton's decision to issue an executive order that the U.S. will not use its trade laws to restrict African countries' access to necessary medications, a policy the Bush administration has said it would continue.

The upcoming action will serve as a send-off for activists heading to Quebec City to protest the Summit of the Americas, which will consider the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, which will likely contain provisions governing patents and intellectual property.
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