E-drug: Brazil annouces compulsory license for nelfinavir
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[Cross posted from Pharm-policy. Thanks. Copied as fair use. HH]
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010822/n2260309.html
Wednesday, 22 August 2001
Brazil moves to violate Roche patent on AIDS drug
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's Health Ministry
said on Wednesday it has started the process to produce nelfinavir
in Brazil after failing to persuade Swiss drugs giant Roche to lower
its price for the AIDS medication.
'The minister started the process today of issuing a compulsory
license to produce the drug here,' a ministry spokesman told
Reuters. 'He couldn't agree on a price with Roche.'
Brazil, which has the highest number of AIDS patients in Latin
America, has threatened to violate patents on AIDS drugs if the
pharmaceutical companies do not lower their prices. Earlier this year
Roche had offered to cut the price of nelfinavir by 13 percent but
Brazil rejected the offer and has been negotiating ever since.
In March, U.S. drug maker Merck bowed to pressure and agreed to
slash prices by 65 percent and 59 percent on two AIDS drugs for
Brazil rather than face possible competition from locally produced
drugs.
Brazil already produces eight of the 12 drugs in the anti-AIDS
cocktail locally, but it has not had to violate patents to do so. The
drugs are distributed free of charge as part of Brazil's widely hailed
AIDS program.
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