[Ip-health] Copying the generics: FDA OKs new 1-a-day dose of 3-drug combination to fight AIDS

[Hember, Miles]

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The colour coding method they have chosen to differentiate between the cheap
and the expensive versions appears to be designed specifically to easily
enable 'grey' marketing, as it is so easy to dye the white pills salmon
coloured! Making the cheap pills a distinct and non-labile colour would have
been much more secure, and would add very little cost.

Am I too cynical in thinking that this is deliberate - there *will* be
illicit trade and dyeing of pills, then it will be discovered and 'we told
you so' from PhRMA who want to extend US-centred IP control worldwide, and
would welcome this as ammunition for that campaign.

Would one of the list experts care to comment?

Cheers

Miles
(some of my colleagues do anticouterfeit technology development, and refer
to some other 'deliberate' grey market manipulations by MNCs, such as in the
tobacco industry)


-----Original Message-----
From: Ira Glazer [mailto:ira@yanua.com]
Sent: 25 July 2006 07:44
To: ip-health@lists.essential.org
Subject: [Ip-health] Copying the generics: FDA OKs new 1-a-day dose of
3-drug combination to fight AIDS

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/13/MNG20JU7ON1.D
TL&type=printable

<SNIP>

Last week, the FDA approved its first twice-a-day, three-in-one pill for
sale to President Bush's $15 billion overseas AIDS initiative, which has
refused to purchase the low-cost Cipla drug. The newly approved pill,
produced by Indian drugmaker Aurobindo Pharma, is deemed safer than
Triomune.

"We absolutely think it was worth waiting for," said Dr. Mark Dybul, the
acting Global AIDS coordinator in charge of the administration's program.

The FDA also approved a version of Atripla for sale to developing countries.
The pill will be produced in a white color, instead of the salmon color of
those to be sold in wealthier markets. Gilead plans to sell the new white
pill at cost, but the price has not been announced pending negotiations with
Merck & Co., which holds rights to efavirenz in many poor countries.

Martin Delaney, founder of Project Inform in San Francisco, said that the
latest approval of Atripla is important because, for the first time, U.S.
drugmakers are cooperating on a better AIDS treatment. It took an Indian
drug maker to produce Triomune, because it ignored the fact that the
ingredients found in its pill were patented by different, competing
companies.

"The fact that two American companies have collaborated here is a good model
for the future," Delaney said.


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