[Ip-health] WSJ: Glaxo to Cut Prices for Some AIDS Drugs & NYT: Glaxo Cuts Not-for Profit Price of AIDS Drugs

[Amy Nunn]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Glaxo to Cut Prices for Some AIDS Drugs



By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
May 31, 2006; Page D6



LONDON -- GlaxoSmithKline
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=gsk>  PLC, the
world's biggest AIDS-drug producer, said it is cutting the not-for-profit
price charged for some of its medicines in poor countries by around 30%.

The British company also is adding two antiretroviral medicines to the
scheme and has signed an eighth voluntary license agreement, allowing Sonke
Pharmaceuticals of South Africa, a joint venture between South Africa's
Community Investment Holdings and India's Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., to make
generic copies of some of its drugs.

The moves are the latest in a series of price reductions by Glaxo and other
AIDS-drug manufacturers, which have been criticized for not doing more to
ensure access to life-saving treatments.

Glaxo has pledged to bring down prices as it achieves greater economies of
scale. About 1.3 million people in the developing world currently take
antiretrovirals, but most of the estimated 40 million infected people around
the world are still unaware of their status




Reuters UK: Glaxo cuts not-for-profit price of AIDS drugs


Wed May 31, 2006 6:03 AM BST168



LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline, the world's biggest AIDS drug producer,
said on Tuesday it was cutting the not-for-profit price charged for some of
its medicines in poor countries by around 30 percent.

The group is also adding two more antiretroviral medicines to the scheme and
has signed an eighth voluntary licence agreement, allowing South Africa's
Sonke Pharmaceuticals to make generic copies of some of its drugs.

The moves are the latest in a series of price reductions introduced by Glaxo
and other AIDS drugs manufacturers, who have been criticised in the past for
not doing more to ensure access to life-saving treatments.

Glaxo has previously pledged to bring down prices as it achieves greater
economies of scale, something that is now happening as shipments of HIV/AIDS
medicines to Africa pick up.

About 1.3 million people in the developing world are currently on
antiretrovirals but most of the estimated 40 million infected people around
the world are still unaware of their status.

The new prices, which take effect from July 1, will see the price of a
60-tablet pack of Trizivir in poor countries fall 31 percent to $70 (37
pounds) while Ziagen is reduced by 28 percent to $52.29.

Glaxo is differentiating packs of medicines destined for not-for-profit
markets to prevent illegal diversion back to the company's profitable
high-price markets.





--
[ image001.gif of type image/gif deleted ]
--