[Ip-health] Associated Press on Brazil negotiations on 3 ARV patents

[James Love]

Brazil Starts Patent Breaking AIDS Drugs
Thu Sep 4, 8:54 PM ET


By ALAN CLENDENNING, AP Business Writer

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil took the first formal step Thursday toward
breaking patents with three pharmaceutical companies selling AIDS (news
- web sites) drugs to South America's largest country after talks failed
to produce price reductions acceptable to the government.

Negotiations are continuing with Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co. and
Roche, but Health Minister Humberto Costa announced a decree by
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that could lead to Brazilian (news -
web sites) production of generic versions, or imports of the cheap
copied drugs from other countries.

Under the decree, Brazil could use a legal process to declare a national
health emergency or public health need that would allow the country to
break the drug companies' patents, Costa's office said in a statement.

International agreements have allowed countries to break patents in
times of national health emergencies, but that has been little help for
countries with no pharmaceutical industry to make the medicines.

Brazil, however, has a robust generic drug industry that can make its
own drugs. It also has a 1997 intellectual property law allowing patents
to be broken when companies employ abusive pricing policies.

Costa's predecessor issued a similar threat two years ago, persuading
Roche to reduce the price of an AIDS drug by 40 percent. Brazil now
wants reductions of up to 50 percent on three different AIDS drugs.

Abbott said in a statement that it was "extremely disappointed the
Brazilian government has implemented legislation to permit the
manufacture or importation of copied versions of Kaletra, a drug under
patent protection in Brazil, and is concerned about potential patient
safety implications."

The company also said it has offered a fair price proposal that reflects
Abbott's scientific investment, but did not offer details. Both Abbott
and Merck spokeswoman Anita Larsen stressed that the firms were still
negotiating and hoped to reach an agreement.

A Roche spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Costa said Brazil would send a team of health ministry experts to India
and China to determine whether cheap versions of the three drugs could
be imported from those countries. Simultaneously, generic production
possibilities in Brazil are being evaluated.

Brazil wants to reduce the price of the three drugs supplied by the
companies =97 Lopinavir, Nelfinavir and Efavirenz =97 because the
government's cost for buying the drugs eats up 63 percent of its $172
million budget for antiretrovial AIDS drugs.

Brazil has one of the most successful anti-AIDS programs in the world,
providing free anti-AIDS drugs to anybody who needs them. About 143,000
Brazilians have AIDS and about 70,000 receive antiretrovial AIDS drugs.

--
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040