[Pharm-policy] UNAIDS call for compulsory licensing and price cuts

[love@cptech.org]

Pretty strong statements from UNAIDS

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB982283229461098290.htm

 February 16, 2001  
 

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Drug Makers Are Prodded
On Cut-Rate AIDS Medicines
By RACHEL ZIMMERMAN 
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


The head of the United Nations AIDS program called on the global
pharmaceutical industry to step up efforts to provide cut-rate AIDS
medicines to developing nations ravaged by the epidemic.

Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, in a statement issued from the
organization's headquarters in Geneva, urged the crafting of a "new
deal" between drug companies and society that would speed up the
distribution and availability of affordable medicines to treat HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS, in poor countries.

Companies Weigh Offer of Royalties for AIDS Drugs Aimed at Africa
 
Dr. Piot's call comes amid growing frustration that big makers of
potentially life-saving medicines aren't doing enough to halt the spread
of AIDS in Africa and amid mounting pressure to take more effective
action. It has been nine months since five major drug companies
announced a pact to provide lower-price drugs in poor nations, but so
far, deals in only three countries have been negotiated.

The lack of progress was underscored last week when Cipla Ltd., a
generic drug maker in Bombay, India, said it would sell a combination of
three AIDS drugs for $600 a patient a year to governments and for $350
to the international nonprofit Doctors Without Borders.

A spokesman for UNAIDS, said negotiations with the five drug makers have
been slow in part because of the companies' unwillingness to publicly
state the price cuts they are offering for their AIDS remedies. Without
this information, he said, neither his organization nor the affected
countries can bargain effectively.

The firms in the original pact are Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb
Co., GlaxoSmithKline PLC; Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Roche Holding
AG.

People close to the country negotiations said that while Merck has
refused to disclose its prices, it is understood that it has offered to
sell one of its drugs, Stocrin, also known as effavirenz, for about
$1,069 a year and its protease drug, Crixivan, for about $1,003 a year.
While those prices represent an 80% discount off the prices in the U.S.,
they are still way too high for most Africans to pay. Merck declined to
comment on specific prices.

Indeed, even in the three countries where agreements have been reached,
only a small fraction of patients are likely to benefit. For instance,
UNAIDS said that over the next five years, the program would extend AIDS
drugs to about 900 people in Senegal, where 79,000 people have HIV.

Dr. Piot said new sources of financing are needed to help pay for the
treatments. New policies are needed to encourage competition that would
drive down prices, allow regional purchasing schemes and promote
licensing pacts between makers of patented drugs and generics that would
enable production of cheaper versions of the medicines. In countries
where trade agreements allow and where the AIDS epidemic constitutes a
national emergency, Dr. Piot said, such licensing arrangements should be
compulsory.

While Dr. Piot's statement doesn't necessarily mean the drug makers'
deal is unraveling, many agree that it could be in jeopardy without
faster, more substantive progress. For the most part, the drug companies
agree.

A Merck spokesman said: "There's an urgent need to speed and expand
access and we're working with UNAIDS and other partners to make that
happen." A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, says that UNAIDS is
"absolutely right to call on everyone to make a greater effort." But he
said responsibility to solve the problem doesn't rest with industry
alone. And deep disagreements over allowing generic competition and
brokering compulsory licensing agreements remain.

Write to Rachel Zimmerman at rachel.zimmerman@wsj.com