[Ip-health] Brazil rejects Merck price offer

[Benjamin Krohmal]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0325916620070503

Brazil rejects Merck price offer for AIDS drug
Thu May 3, 2007 2:40PM EDT

By Natuza Nery

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's president is to decide whether his
country will honor Merck & Co's AIDS drug patent, after the health
ministry rejected the company's price-cut.

"We consider the offer insufficient and we told the manufacturer,"
Brazil's health minister, Jose Temporao, told Reuters on Thursday.
"The decision (on whether to break the patent) is now being analyzed
by the president."

The government said last week it was considering importing generic
versions of the drug, Efavirenz, for Brazil's lauded AIDS treatment
program if it decides not to honor the patent. It has not mentioned
any plans to make the drug locally. Brazil has threatened to break
patents before, but has hammered out deals in the end.

Under World Trade Organization rules, a country can sidestep patents
by issuing a "compulsory license," which allows production and
imports of generic drugs for public health and national emergencies.
Brazil declared the drug "in the public interest" and too expensive
to buy.

Brazil wanted Merck to cut the price of Efavirenz to $0.65 per pill
-- the same price paid by Thailand -- from $1.57 per pill paid by
Brazil, the ministry said.

A source close to the negotiations said the New Jersey-based
drugmaker has since come back with an offer of $1.10 a patient per
day, but Brazil rebuffed that bid. The source said the talks were at
an impasse.

Merck sells the drug for $1.80 per day in most middle-income
countries, according to the company.

"We at Merck are disappointed to have had what we considered to be a
fair offer rejected by the government of Brazil," Merck spokeswoman
Amy Rose said, adding that Merck had repeatedly requested a face-to-
face meeting with the health ministry to "further explore a mutually
acceptable agreement".

(Additional reporting by Kim Dixon in Chicago and Ricardo Amaral in
Brasilia)


Benjamin Krohmal
Coordinator - Project on Medical Innovation
Knowledge Ecology International
Tel: +1-202-332-2670 ex. 14
Fax: +1-202-332-2673
ben.krohmal@keionline.org