San Francisco Chronicle - July 10, 2004
Bernadette Tansey, btansey@sfchronicle.com.

Gilead said it was able to reduce the cost of a one-day supply of Viread, its best-selling drug, to 82 cents by improving the efficiency of the manufacturing processes. The daily price was $1.30 in April 2003, when the company started its Gilead Access Program in all African nations and 15 other impoverished countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.

"We created the Gilead Access Program to make Viread available in resource-limited settings," said Gilead Chief Executive Officer John Martin. "This price reduction will make it even more widely available."

During the past year, Viread has been used or included in the treatment plan for 2,000 to 3,000 people under the Access Program. Gilead also provides Viread to 1,000 patients in Uganda at no cost, company spokeswoman Amy Flood said.

The United Nations estimates that 38 million people worldwide, 25 million of those in Africa, are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Since the diagnosis of the first patient in 1981, the AIDS epidemic has cost 20 million lives.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders last week sent letters to Gilead and other drug firms pleading for price breaks that would extend treatment to greater numbers of afflicted people in poor nations.

The group asked Gilead to price Viread at about $100 a year, said David Olson, medical adviser for the U.S. branch of Doctors Without Borders.

"They didn't go as far as we would have liked," said Olson. "The price they charged makes it about $310 a year."

That puts Viread beyond reach in the least developed countries, Olson said. People with HIV can deter the viral infection from becoming fully developed AIDS by taking a combination of three drugs. Olson said generic drugmakers in India offer a three-drug combination for $260 a year, which is less than the new price for Viread alone. But Olson said he would like to see Viread added to the arsenal of HIV drugs that are more affordable in poor nations because it might help people who become resistant to other regimens.

Flood said Gilead is offering the drug at cost and continues to try to shave that cost. In the United States, Viread costs more than $12 a day. In 2003, Viread sales were $566.5 million.

Pacific Growth Equities analyst Greg Wade said the change in Viread's nonprofit price for poor nations should have no effect on the company's financial picture. But he said the firm's ability to reduce its manufacturing costs could improve profits on sales of the drug elsewhere.

Gilead shares lost 44 cents, or 0.67 percent, to close at $65.33 Friday.

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