[e-drug] WSJ on Roche's expensive ARVs

[e-drug@usa.healthnet.org]

E-DRUG: WSJ on Roche's expensive ARVs
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[Why is Roche not lowering the price of its ARV like the other
multinationals? In South Africa, Roche actually INCREASED the price of
nelfinavir with 19% over the last 2 years (270 tabs of nelfinavir 250mg
from R 2257 in 2000 to R 2683 in July 2002). Compare this to a price
REDUCTION of 95% for BMS' stavudine, 76% for MSD indinavir, 76% for
Abbott's ritonavir, and 68% for Boehringer's nevirapine. These companies
made at least a reasonable price reduction. GSK lowered lamuvidine with
only 20% and "lowered" the price of AZT with one cent (100 x 100mg AZT from
R 368.68 to R 368.67.....). Copied as fair use. WB]

Roche Is Faulted for High Cost
Of AIDS Drug in Poor Countries
By RACHEL ZIMMERMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian group, said Roche
Holding AG hasn't lived up to its promise to cut prices for a critical AIDS
medicine in developing countries.

The French nonprofit group released pricing information to support its
argument, as well as data that it said show the Swiss drug maker could
easily cut prices further and still make a profit.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF,
said Roche is the lone holdout among five major drug makers that announced
plans to slash the prices of key AIDS antiretroviral medicines.

The organization said it surveyed the five companies and asked them for
their best price on a variety of AIDS drugs. Roche responded with a price
of about $3,170, at current exchange rates, for Viracept per patient per
year in the least-developed countries. But the group said it couldn't get
that price in many countries when it came time to make purchases. In
contrast, Merck & Co., based in New Jersey, promised a price of $600 for
Crixivan, which like Viracept is a protease inhibitor, and has honored it
in actual sales, the aid group said.

Charles Alfaro, a Roche spokesman, said he wouldn't discuss the specifics
of Viracept pricing. But he did say the company has dropped the price in
the poorest countries, and is also spending on education and training
programs. "As a result, we are not making any profit in Africa and
least-developed countries," he said.

Daniel Berman, a spokesman for MSF, said Roche's price lists vary widely,
and the actual price turns out to be higher than promised in several
countries. In Cameroon, for instance, MSF paid Roche $4,124 a year for
Viracept, Mr. Berman said. In middle-income countries, like Ukraine, the
per-patient annual price quoted by Roche is about $7,110, Mr. Berman says,
though he added that Roche offered a one-time donation of 10 boxes in that
country. That's more than the retail price in Switzerland: $6,169 a year.

In May 2000, after an intense international lobbying campaign and with
looming competition from generic-drug makers, Roche joined four competitors
pledging to slash AIDS drug prices. Since then, the others -- Merck,
GlaxoSmithKline PLC of the United Kingdom; Boehringer-Ingelheim GmbH of
Germany; and New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. -- say they have cut
the prices of key antiretroviral medicines by about 85% to 90% in poor
countries.

In an April 18 document laying out Roche's policies and principles, the
company "pledged not to profit from its HIV therapeutic portfolio" in the
least-developed nations.

However, Swiss AIDS researchers, who joined MSF's campaign to pressure
Roche, say the company does appear to be profiting. MSF produced a letter
from a raw-materials supplier for Agouron, the division of Pfizer Inc. that
markets Viracept in North America. The June 5 letter says Viracept's raw
materials can be purchased for between $700 and $900 a kilogram.

For that price, an annual dosage of the drug could be manufactured and sold
profitably for about $1,350 per patient, according to Eloan Dos Santos
Pinheiro, a former official of a government-owned generic-drug producer in
Brazil.

Write to Rachel Zimmerman at rachel.zimmerman@wsj.com


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