DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Mylan Inc. (MYL) agreed to lower the
prices on medicines for patients with drug-resistant HIV in
developing countries, President Bill Clinton and the companies
announced.
The medicines and prices will be available to governments that
are members of the William J. Clinton Foundation's Procurement
Consortium in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Pfizer has committed to lowering the price on its drug to treat
tuberculosis in patients taking second-line antiretroviral
therapies for HIV/AIDS patients that have developed resistance to
first-line remedies by 60% to $1 a dose.
Mylan will make available its four second-line antiretroviral
treatments - Atazanavir, Ritonavir, Tenofovir and Lamivudine - in
three pills for $475 a year. Next year the pills will be packaged
together, allowing a price cut to $425. In addition to reducing the
number of pills taken per day, the products will include the first
heat stable-version of Ritonavir, eliminating the need for
refrigeration, removing a major obstacle to distributing the drug
in developing countries with limited infrastructure.
It is the first time the combination has been available for less
than $500 a year, the announcement said. If fully adopted the new
regimen could lead to a cumulative cost savings of $400 million
over the next five years compared with recent prices for
alternative treatments.
There were between 200,000 and 250,000 HIV drug-resistant
patients across the developing world last year. The number is
expected to double over the next three years, the announcement
said.
-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2481;
tess.stynes@dowjones.com