Brazil Overrides Patent For AIDS Drug

Presidential Decree Authorizes Purchase Of Generic Version Of Merck's Efavirenz At Lower Cost

(AP)  President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued a "compulsory license" on Friday to override the patent of an AIDS drug made by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck.

The move, the first time Brazil has bypassed a patent, comes a day after talks on the efavirenz drug broke down when the Brazilian government rejected Merck & Co.'s offer to sell the drug at a 30 percent discount, or $1.10 per pill, down from $1.57.

The country was seeking to purchase the drug at 65 cents a pill, the same price Thailand pays.

Silva said Brazil would consider overriding the patent of any drug sold at unfair prices. "Between our business and our health, we are going to take care of our health," he said after signing the decree.

Amy Rose, a spokeswoman for the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company, said earlier that Merck would be "profoundly disappointed if Brazil goes ahead with a compulsory license."

A compulsory license is a legal mechanism that allows a country to manufacture or buy generic versions of patented drugs while paying the patent holder only a small royalty.

Brazilian law and rules established under the World Trade Organization allow compulsory licenses in a health emergency or if the pharmaceutical industry uses abusive pricing.

After Thailand moved to override patents on three anti-AIDS drugs, including those made by Abbott Laboratories and Merck, the United States placed Thailand on a list of copyright violators.

In Thailand's capital of Bangkok, AIDS activists rallied outside the U.S. Embassy on Thursday to protest that decision, calling the Thai government's move to slash the cost of pricey U.S.-made AIDS drugs a "lifesaver."

The president of the U.S.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Michael Weinstein, called Brazil's action a "victory," saying in a statement, "We salute the courage of countries such as Brazil, Thailand and Mexico who are fighting to ensure drug access for AIDS patients the world over.

"Drug companies will go down in defeat every time they place themselves in the way of justice for AIDS patients," he said.

But the U.S.-Brazil Business Council said the decision was a "major step backward" in intellectual property law and warned it could harm development.

"Brazil is working to attract investment in innovative industries ... and this move will likely cause investments to go elsewhere," the council said in a statement.

Although Brazil had threatened to bypass drug patents in the past, the country had always reached a last-minute agreement with drug manufacturers.

Brazil provides free AIDS drugs to anyone who needs them and manufactures generic versions of several drugs that were in production before Brazil enacted an intellectual property law in 1997 to join the WTO.

But as newer drugs have emerged, costs ballooned and health officials warned that without deep discounts, they would be forced to issue compulsory licenses.

Efavirenz is used by 75,000 of the 180,000 Brazilians who receive free AIDS drugs from the government. The drug currently costs about the government about $580 per patient per year.

"Although (Brazil) provides this drug free to about 75,000 people, the price is 136 percent higher than this lab (Merck) offers to Thailand," Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said, and the price "threatened the viability of the anti-AIDS program."

The Health Ministry says a generic version of efavirenz would save the government some $240 million between now and 2012, when Merck's patent expires.

[rafterman1]

===You all sound so generous and free with other peoples' money - must feel good, if you're a spoiled child.===

Don't worry, people like Fartknocker are equally generous and free with people's lives too, like in sending soldiers to die in Iraq. So, it's business as usual.

[omega39-2009]

Who cares, they're making Billions off the Republican no bid Medicare prescription coverage.Don't worry Right Wingers, no millionaire will be "left behind".

[jdeltoro1]

I am glad to see Brasil is taking the initiative to take care of the people instead of letting some foreign company walk all over them. Pharmaceutical companies in general, when it comes down to it, are more about profit than curing. Good for Brasil!

[jjp735i]

Good for them. It's time someone stood up for their own people. They know they need the drup to save lives and they know they can't afford the over charging. Too bad our own government can't see how we are being screwed. Their too busy collecting some of that extra charge themselves.

[rkahk]

Well, I guess you all won't mind if I take your house or apartment because some AIDs victim needs a place to live. That will teach you not to volunteer it.

Yes, Brazil will teach Merck not to bother going through the process of discovery and testing of new AIDS drugs so people can get them for free. At least now they shouldn't be liable for anything that goes wrong with the generics that they didn't produce.

You all sound so generous and free with other peoples' money - must feel good, if you're a spoiled child.

[toolmangler-2009]

dmorg4 ..You must not have had anyone with cancer..My aunt did..was it YOU that saved her??
Was it that dumb a$$ LOCHLAN that sacved her..He$$ no it was an evil drug company and evil researchers..
Both of you drop and goto you know what !!!!
Posted by FARTKNOCKER2 at 06:00 PM : May 04, 2007


I am on this side of the ground because of pharmaceutical companys so I am with him on this.

[tngreen]

Merck, the good folks who brought you Vioxx and continued to push it even after they knew it was killing people. Anybody who makes the argument for drug companies based on their reasonable right to a profit knows NOTHING about how the pharmaceutical industry works in this country--about how the Bush Admin introduced fast-tracking of new drugs (without proper studies), about how they are the most powerful lobby in Washington, about how they subsidize what ought to be independent research facilities and control what results get reported and what gets suppressed, about the many conflicts of interest in how research is conducted, about how the FDA has been purged of those who "make trouble" for industry. Go educate yourself. Then get angry.

I hope that Brazil moves forward with this action and shames other nations into following suit.

[mdk2dude]

If the Brazilian Goverment cuts off paying Merck for the drugs it is their right. Now if Merch cuts off Brazil from the drugs being shipped in then we will see how they will invent new ones. I dont like paying a very high price for drugs but I found out recently it wasnt the drug companies but the middle man in my case it was Walgreens. For 100 pills of lorazepam the cost from Walgreens is $53.00 and at Costco the price is $9.75. Quite a bit of difference and so I take my business for that drug elsewhere. The option to do the same is open to Brazil if they can find someone to manufacture and develop the drug for them.

[alphaa10-2009]

The pharmaceuticals spend billions simply to promote their most profitable drugs-- hence the "huge" cost of development.

Your doctor is the target of this massive promotion. Because he hasn't the time to become truly educated about pharmaceuticals since he left medical school, he depends heavily-- too heavily-- on what wily drug pushers called "field reps" tell him when they visit his office.

Such special-interest control of the judgment of the nation's doctors is little short of corrupt, if not criminally negligent.

Brazil serves notice it will not play games over drug pricing, though Bush continues to demand Americans pay many times what foreigners are asked to pay for the same US and EU pharmaceuticals.

[randalds]

I got to agree that every company deserves to make a fair profit, but that drug companies tend to hold lifesaving drugs hostage to the highest bidders and that just plain inhuman. If they want to gouge a bit for drugs that cure baldness or bad breath or something like that, fine, but doing it for drugs that literally mean the difference between living and dying should be illegal and is certainly immoral. Bravo to Brazil. Between this and their independence from foreign oil, we could learn much from them.

[andrew_693]

the brazilian government is saving lives with this measure, kudos to them for they represent the will of their citizens, unlike our government. The drug corporations are overcharging people and taking advantage of the desperation of patients, notice how aids, cancer and terminal illness drugs and sugeries are extremely expensive, thats because they prey on the need of people. Access to medicine should not be only a priviledge of the rich.

[fairandbal]

I will wager money that with this move, Bush, the corporate president, will declare that Al-Qaeda is now in Brazil, that they have WMD and we must now attack them ASAP.

[gprince2]

Great idea, take the responsibility to do the right thing. Save lives!! Maybe the world can go in and take responsible control of the rainforests that are being raped by the Brasilians.

[oleander8]

Every company deserves a fair profit. I don't think many people would disagree with that. But the Big Pharmaceuticals and Big Oil demand outrageous profits. And the drug companies don't even bear the brunt of the research costs. Those monies come from government (tax payers) and charities.

[lochlan-2009]

HA HA HA HA, F^&K you Merck. You tried to screw a country that actually represents its citizens and ended up with absolutly nothing.

[dmorg4]

Well i dont blame them at all drug companys are
evil if they didnt try to get rich on every
person this would not happen.