Drug Company as Masochist: Bristol-Myers Takes Needless Whipping for HIV Drug Prices

(MoneyWatch)  Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) is again needlessly taking a beating over the price of its AIDS drugs. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation criticized BMS for not agreeing to supply cut-price HIV drugs to state programs that care for unemployed AIDS patients, but the flap may say more about BMS's corporate masochism than its actual intransigence over AIDS drug pricing.

Remember, it was BMS that suffered pointlessly in silence when it was mostly falsely accused of trying to kill 7,000 babies by withdrawing their HIV treatments in June. This, again, is a reminder that staying silent is often a bad strategy in the face of criticism, because the group that's actually negotiating to get those AIDS drug discounts doesn't have much of a beef with BMS.

In a chat with BNET, Beth Krutsinger-Perry, the associate director of care and treatment at the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors, said that the states already have an agreement with BMS to supply the antiretroviral therapy Reyataz at a discount, and that they're in talks with BMS to cut the price further. "We're confident they'll come back to us with something," she says. (Apparently, BMS's problem is that the people doing the negotiating don't actually have permission to make a deal, and must keep going back to their bosses at BMS for decisions -- another example of BMS's self-harming culture). NASTAD's talks with BMS were mentioned in a July 8 press release.

NASTAD's current pricing agreement with BMS dates back to about October 2009. The reason the state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs want more price cuts is because the recession has created a record number of unemployed HIV patients --- 2,158 at the last count -- without healthcare coverage who are on waiting lists for HIV treatment.

While the AHF accuses BMS in its press release of raising the price of Reyataz by 25 percent to an average wholesale price of Reyataz $13,046 per year, the AHF doesn't actually know what BMS charges the states under its current discount arrangement, nor does it know the dollar size of the further cuts currently being negotiated. A source tells BNET -- and NASTAD's Krutsinger-Perry confirmed -- that negotiations with all companies only take place on the condition that the actual discounts are kept secret. AHF president Michael Weinstein told BNET that he believes BMS currently supplies ADAPs with Reyataz priced at about $8,000, far lower than the amount cited in his press release.

Lastly, in the same press release, AHF lauds Abbott Labs (ABT) for being one of the companies that has reached an agreement to discount its HIV drugs. That's strange praise indeed, for AHF knows full well that Abbott controls a legal monopoly on Norvir, the protease inhibitor that must be taken with BMS's Reyataz and other HIV drugs, and that Abbott has jacked up the price of Norvir by more than 500 percent for everyone else who needs it. AHF, in fact, once sued Abbott over its Norvir pricing.

Related:

• Bristol-Myers Isn't Really Trying to Kill 7,000 Babies With AIDS, It's Just Bad at PR
• Abbott Q3: How a Monopoly Over an HIV Drug Resulted in Lower Sales
• Merck CEO Clark Subject of "Wanted" Poster Over Price of HIV Drugs
• Why Abbott Is Allowed to Manipulate GSK and BMS's AIDS Drug Prices