[Ip-health] Merck/Gilead's roll out of Atripla in developing countries

[James Packard Love]

$613 annually: The price in countries where more than 1 percent of
the adult population has the AIDS virus, or HIV.

$1,033 annually: The price in 22 nations that are not among the
poorest and have a lower rate of HIV infection.


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Merck pushes low-cost AIDS pill

Saturday, February 17, 2007

By DUNSTAN PRIAL
STAFF WRITER

Merck & Co. said Friday it will begin registering its experimental
AIDS treatment Atripla for approval in developing countries where HIV
infection is prevalent.

Whitehouse Station-based Merck said it doesn't expect to realize a
profit from sales of the drug in those countries, and that Atripla
will be priced on a sliding scale based on each nation's wealth.

Through the first half of 2007, the company said, the once-daily,
three-drug-in-one pill will be registered in 45 nations in the Middle
East and Africa and in nine more countries in Latin America, the
Caribbean and Asia. Registration in developing countries began in
November in Ethiopia, according to a Merck statement.

A tablet will cost $1.68 in countries where more than 1 percent of
the adult population has the AIDS virus, or HIV.

The price in 22 nations that are not among the poorest and have a
lower rate of HIV infection will be $2.83, Merck said.

The number of people living with HIV has climbed to 40 million from 8
million in 1990, and 63 percent of them live in sub-Saharan Africa,
according to UNAIDS/World Health Organization.

Atripla was approved in the U.S. in July. The tablet combines three
drugs -- Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Viread and Emtriva and Bristol-Myers
Squibb Co.'s Sustiva.

Merck and Gilead, of Foster City, Calif., agreed in August to work
together to make the drug available in poorer countries.

Merck said it will handle distribution, while Gilead will handle
manufacturing.

"Merck and Gilead are to be congratulated on bringing to the market
this new weapon in the fight against HIV/AIDS in developing
countries," said Richard G.A. Feachem, executive director of The
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, an advocacy group.

Merck's shares rose 40 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $44.28 in New York
Stock Exchange trading on Friday.

Drug companies, facing criticism from human rights organizations,
have stepped up efforts recently to make AIDS drugs available in
developing countries.

In December, Pfizer Inc. announced it will begin distributing its
experimental AIDS drug maraviroc at no cost for use in clinical
trials in developing countries.

The expanded-access program is aimed at making unapproved products
available to those with serious or life-threatening diseases as early
as possible in the drug-evaluation process, Pfizer said in a statement.

E-mail: prial@northjersey.com


----------------------------------------------
James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org
james.love@keionline.org
Washington, DC +1.202.332.2670

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks." Bill Walton"