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Brazil, Abbott reach agreement on price reduction for AIDS drug |
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15:41, July 05, 2007 |
Brazil, Abbott reach agreement on price reduction for AIDS drug
Abbott Laboratories Inc. and the Brazilian government have agreed to cut the price of an anti-AIDS drug by 29.5 percent in 2007, the U.S.-based company and the Brazilian Health Ministry said Wednesday.
Under an agreement reached between the two sides, Abbott will cut the price for Kaletra, a protease inhibitor, from a previously agreed 1.04 U.S. dollars per pill to 73 cents per pill this year and 68 cents in 2008, or "1,000 dollars per patient per year," the Health Ministry said.
The reduced price for Kaletra, one of the most commonly used anti-AIDS drugs in Brazil, will save the country about 10 million dollars a year in costs for its AIDS treatment program, which provides free drugs to anyone who needs them.
Heather Mason, Abbott's vice president for Latin American and Canada, said her company has offered to reduce the price of the drug for 45 "low and low-middle income countries" such as Brazil.
"It makes it easier for the government of Brazil to provide medicine to a growing number of patients," she said.
In September, Brazil will begin to offer Kaletra pills to about 32,000 patients in the country.
Source: Xinhua
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