E-drug: Anti retrovirals (cont)
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First, I do not agree at all that these drugs are that hard to
manufacture. For example, one Indian firm that can export the
products to countries with a compulsory license (CL) can sell,
right now:
Fluconazole, AZT, 3TC, Clarithromycin,
Azithromycin, Itraconazole, Ciprofloxacin,
Ofloxacin, Nevirapine and Lamivudine
There are firms in Canada, India, China, Argentina, Israel and elsewhere
that can make products, if they have both the legal right to do so and
sufficent economies of scale.
Second, I would like to re-emphasize the fact that small countries
can import drugs under a compulsory license, if they want. Thus,
anything now sold in India, which is quite a bit, can be imported to
any country that can issue a compulsory license.
Third, price differences for each product will vary, but a country
can probably get anywhere from 50 to 97 percent off the global price,
or better, if they do decent job of procurement.
Also, with regarding to prices, here is some recent data on 3TC:
10 Jun 1999
Prices for 3TC, lamivudine, Epivir
Glaxo's Epivir in USA 150 mg, 60 tabs = $235.80 at Drugstore.com
150 mg 60 tabs = $262.00 wholesale price,
according to a NYC pharmacy, Grove Drugs (June 10)
Glaxo Epivir in India....150 mg, 60 tabs = $114.42
CIPLA's Lamivir 150 mg , 60 tabs = $ 46.51
The $46.51 CIPLA price isn't the best price that could be obtained,
IMO, and CIPLA has reportedly told some people that its marginal costs
are quite a bit below this. Indeed, I would think an interesting
question would be, how cheaply could one manufacture a three drug regime,
if one really wanted to get this right? My guess is that right now if the
world really wanted to do this cheaply, it could be done for about $60 or
less per month, for a 3 drug combo, if there was a serious global effort
to have a cheap regime available. I would not be surprised, however, if
the answer was anywhere between $100 a month and $30 per month, for a 3
drug regime, at high volumes of production. And, in 5 years, it might be
possible to do something cheaper than this.
Jamie
James Love / Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org / love@cptech.org
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 202.387.8030 / fax 202.234.5176
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