5/6/07

Abbott to cut AIDS drug cost in poor nations

Moving to defuse a potentially damaging international controversy, Abbott Laboratories announced it will cut the price of its AIDS-fighting Kaletra drug by more than half in many developing nations.

The plan, which has the backing of the World Health Organization, is designed to help Abbott avert a pending patent-rights showdown with the government of Thailand, where officials have been threatening to break Abbott's patent and produce a low-priced generic version of Kaletra.
Abbott's discount plan, which promises to save thousands of lives in Thailand and other less-developed nations, "is really a huge victory for AIDS activists worldwide over one of the most formidable opponents in the drug industry," said Michael Weinstein, president of Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has long been a harsh critic of the company's pricing practices.

The dispute between Abbott and Thailand has been closely followed by governments and drug producers alike because it involves what could prove to be a new battlefield in the ongoing debate over the pricing of AIDS drugs.

Although globalization has sparked a host of intellectual-property fights around the world, tiffs over pirated software do not pack the same public-relations punch as the pharmaceutical industry's fight to protect patentrightsoverlife-savingdrugs.

Simply put, the drugs now available for fighting the scourge of AIDS are effective but are also so costly that they are economically out of reach in poorer parts of the globe.

[Excerpt of an article by James P. Miller, The Chicago Tribune]

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