[Ip-health] WSJ: Abbott Laboratories Faces HeatOver Raising Price of AIDS Drug

[James Love]

Abbott Laboratories Faces HeatOver Raising Price of AIDS Drug
By LEILA ABBOUD Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 13, 2004; Page D7

Abbott Laboratories is facing mounting pressure from activists, members of
Congress and the federal government over its nearly fivefold price
increase on its AIDS drug Norvir.

The National Institutes of Health will hold a public meeting in Washington
May 25 to consider whether the federal government should exercise its
rights, under a little-known law, to issue a license allowing cheaper,
generic copies of Norvir to be made before the drug's patents expire.

On Tuesday, eight Democratic senators wrote a letter to the head of the
NIH asking that an official from the Federal Trade Commission speak at the
meeting about competitive issues raised by the price increase. The FTC
declined to comment.

In December, Abbott Labs, based in North Chicago, Ill., raised the
wholesale price for a month's worth of Norvir to $265 from $54.Essential
Inventions, the consumer advocacy group that requested the NIH meeting,
argues that Norvir was developed with support from taxpayer funds and now
is being sold at an unreasonable price. The group is urging the federal
government to use its authority under the Bayh-Dole Act to allow others to
make Norvir at lower cost, something that has never been done under the
law.

Norvir is a protease inhibitor that hasn't been a lucrative seller for
Abbott but is widely used in small doses to boost the potency of some AIDS
combination-drug therapies. The price increase, Abbott Laboratories says,
adjusts Norvir's cost to better reflect the drug's importance and value in
treating HIV therapy. Jeffrey Leiden, the president of Abbott's
pharmaceutical-products group, says Norvir is still the cheapest protease
inhibitor.

The December price increase touched off protest from AIDS activists and
physician groups who see it as a threat to patients' health. Activists
protested at the company's offices and annual meeting, and filed civil
lawsuits in state and federal court. Three state attorneys general are
investigating, and the FTC received a complaint alleging that the price
increase was anticompetitive.

Abbott has maintained the price increase was justified and said steps were
being taken to make sure patients were still able to get the drug.

The central issue to be considered by the federal government is: Does the
Norvir price increase represent an "unreasonable" use of the patent that
limits public access to the drug? Abbott's Dr. Leiden says the move "in no
way" reduced access to Norvir. "We took extraordinary measures to make
sure that not a single patient was deprived of the drug," he said. The
company says it has frozen the lower price for public programs that pay
for AIDS drugs for low-income people, hasn't changed prices for Medicaid,
and has made it easier for those without insurance to get Norvir free of
charge.

Write to Leila Abboud at leila.abboud@wsj.com



--
James Love
http://www.cptech.org mailto:james.love@cptech.org
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