E-drug: Re: Lowest cost for HIV/AIDS drugs?
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jamie's information dovetails with my experiences. In off the record
conversations with one CEO from a major drug company, he indicated that an
idea to reduce costs by going to cheaper labor markets in, say, India and
taking the cost savings as a fund to help subsidize drug costs in poor
countries was a silly idea because the real costs were already dirt cheap
and
cutting them by 90% according to him, would mean a few cents difference per
tablet. I visited CIPLA in India which already produces AZT, D4t, 3TC,
and
soon Nevirapine at over 70% below USA prices and brought back some of the
antivirals last year. In another off the record conversation with the
chemist that put together Crixivan, he explained to me in some detail the
real costs of the drug's production which was frankly rather modest.
David Scondras
Scondras@aol.com
[See also Richard Laing's posting 8 February 1999
(http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug-hma/9902/msg0022.html) which is
about David's trip to India. KM, moderator]
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