E-DRUG: Lower priced ARVs sell better
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[The lower private sector prices of ARVs by MSD, BMS,
Abbott and Boehringer Ingelheim in Africa's private sector
markets have lead to higher sales in those markets.
Annual cocktail prices have dropped to about USD 900.
Anybody any info whether the sales of GlaxoSmithKline and
Roche (who did not (yet) drop their private sector prices)
have declined??
Please note that generic triple cocktails are already available
at USD 250-350 per person per year, if at least they are
not patent protected in your country...
And 20,000 lucky people on ART is 0.07% of the 30 million
HIV+ Africans... Equitable access?? Copied as fair use. NN]
http://biz.yahoo.com/apf/011126/merck_aids_drugs_1.html
Monday November 26
Merck: Price Drop Helps Expand Access to AIDS Drugs
By THERESA AGOVINO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP)
-- The number of people in poor countries taking Merck & Co.'s AIDS
drugs
has grown 40 percent to 70,000 since the company began selling its
medicines at cost to those nations nine months ago, officials said
Monday.
Still, that number is only a fraction of those who need to be taking
the
medicine, said an adviser with Doctors Without Borders. Last March,
under
pressure from activists, Merck announced it would offer Crixivan and
Stocrin to 100 countries for $600 and $500 a year per person,
respectively.
In the United States, Crixivan is about $6,000 a year per person.
Stocrin is
sold in the United States by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. under the brand
name
Sustiva for about $4,700 a year. Merck's actions were quickly mirrored
by Bristol-Myers
and Abbott Laboratories. The Merck program has been most
successful in Kenya and South Africa, where the drugs are purchased by
a combination
of charity organizations and private insurers. In Kenya, the number of
individuals being
treated increased fivefold to 1,000. Meanwhile in South Africa, the
number surged 20
times to 5,000. The dramatic increase in South Africa is noteworthy
because the
government there has been widely criticized for its failure to address
the AIDS
epidemic. The drugs there have been primarily purchased through
insurers, said Guy
Macdonald, vice president of Merck's anti-infective franchise. He
hopes that employers
in South Africa will also begin to take advantage of the offer.
Merck's offer is open to the
world's 100 poorest countries; so far 40 countries have received
shipments of the
discounted drugs while an additional eight countries have indicated
they plan to
purchase the cheaper medicines. But more must be done, said Doctors
Without
Borders medical adviser Anne-Valerie Kaninda. For example, sub-Saharan
Africa, home
to 25 million infected with AIDS, has been hardest hit by the
pandemic; of those, about
2.5 million to 3 million should be taking medicines, but only 25,000
to 30,000 are on
any type of therapy, she said. ``Any additional person who is able to
gain access to
medicines is a good thing,'' said Kaninda. ``But the needs are huge.
We are still very far
from fulfilling the needs.'' She added the drug companies should
continue to lower their
prices to make them even more affordable to more people and
governments. Macdonald
said Merck did not plan any further price reductions, however.
--
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