Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - August 13, 2006
Bruce Japsen, bjapsen@tribune.com
The North Chicago-based drug giant already makes its blockbuster AIDS pill Kaletra available for $500 per patient per year in 69 of the poorest countries, including all of Africa. In the United States, Kaletra costs more than $7,500 a year per patient.
In expanding the program Abbott said it would add countries considered "low income," such as India, Vietnam and Pakistan, as well as "lower middle income" economies, including China, Syria, Jordan and several countries in South America and Asia.
These additional 45 countries will pay $2,200 a year per patient, reduced from the $3,300 or $5,000 a year they had been paying, an Abbott spokeswoman said.
Abbott would not comment on the timing of its decision to announce an expanded pricing program. Some observers believe it is timed to generate goodwill this week during the 16th International AIDS Conference, which began Sunday in Toronto and runs through Friday.
"This action broadens Abbott's preferential pricing to 114 countries from the 69 African countries and the least developed countries," Abbott said in a statement. "Prices apply to all developing world public funders of HIV medicines, specifically governments and non-governmental organizations."
The new pricing structure will apply to both tablet and soft-gel capsule formulations of Kaletra and will be effective immediately.
Abbott and other makers of medicines to treat HIV have been under criticism for years over their prices. Earlier this year Abbott Chairman and Chief Executive Miles White met criticism from more than 60 protesters at its April shareholders meeting over its pricing of Kaletra, which is in a class of HIV medicines called protease inhibitors.
Critics have also said Abbott has not made accessible the newer tablet form of Kaletra, known as Aluvia, which requires no refrigeration and would be important in areas of the world such as AIDS-ravaged Africa where health-care facilities do not have adequate cooling equipment for medical products.
But Abbott said it is making strides to get Aluvia approved for sale in countries around the world. In addition, Abbott said it has made a "significant investment" in manufacturing capacity that should also address accessibility issues for the newer tablet.
Abbott's pricing effort is different from that of some other drug companies, which have granted licenses to generic drug-makers to make their brand name HIV medicines. Several AIDS groups have said they prefer that companies grant licenses to generic drug-makers, which critics argue keeps the brand name manufacturer from controlling the prices and limiting competition.
At Abbott's shareholders meeting, for example, protesters told White that Abbott should provide Kaletra even more cheaply than the $500 a year it is charging in Africa and the least developed countries.
"Generic competition will lower prices," Sara Renn, a national coordinator for the Student Global AIDS Campaign, said at that time.
Abbott said it has not stood in the way of any generic companies' attempts to make Kaletra cheaper and has no patent protection filed in these needy countries.
White has also said he believes generic companies have shied away because they would not be able to provide it more cheaply than Abbott does.
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