[e-drug] Abbott drops Lopi/r to $1000 for 40 middle income countries

["E-Drug" <e-drug@healthnet.org>]

E-DRUG: Abbott drops Lopi/r to $1000 for 40 middle income countries
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[Generic competition works! See below Abbott's response on Cipla's recent
announcement of making a generic version of heat stable lopi/r available for
USD 1540/year: Abbott, which charged USD 2200/year until now in
middle-income countries (and USD 500/year in Subsaharan Africa and LDCs),
has now dropped the price of Lopi/r till USD 1000/pp/year. 
Below the email of Abbott to the NGO community; a formal press release with
more data is available at
http://www.abbott.com/global/url/pressRelease/en_US/60.5:5/Press_Release_044
2.htm
WB]

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From: James R Howley <James.Howley@abbott.com>
Date: Apr 10, 2007 7:22 AM
Subject: News from Abbott Labs

Dear Community Friends,

Today, Abbott announced that it has agreed with WHO Director-General
Margaret Chan, M.D., on a balanced approach to provide Kaletra/Aluvia to
more patients in the developing world.  The need for second-line therapy is
increasing, and as a result of the WHO treatment guidelines, many
governments are now recognizing and supporting the need for second-line
therapy.  In resource-limited settings, boosted protease inhibitors are the
core of second-line therapy and Kaletra/Aluvia tablets are the WHO-recommend
protease inhibitor.

The details of this program are as follows:

In more than 40 low and low-middle income countries, Abbott will offer
governments and NGOs a new price for Kaletra/Aluvia capsules and tablets of
$1,000 per patient per year, less than half of our previously announced
reduced price of $2,200 per patient per year.

This price is significantly lower than that offered by the manufacturers of
generic versions of lopinavir/ritonavir, none of which has been WHO
pre-qualified or approved by a stringent regulatory authority.

Abbott's access price for Africa and the Least Developed Countries remains
the same at $500 per patient per year.

Today, Kaletra capsules are registered in 118 countries, making it the most
widely registered HIV medicine (according to WHO data).  Abbott plans to
register Kaletra/Aluvia in more than 150 countries, and we have already
filed in nearly 100 countries.

Abbott is taking this action now in order to further increase access and
address the debate around pricing of HIV medicines by increasing
affordability while preserving the global patent system that encourages the
discovery of new medicines.

The news release for our announcement is attached for your information.
This action is another step in our commitment to provide the greatest access
possible to Kaletra.  We hope that you will share this others.

Yours in the cause,

Jim Howley
Director, Community Relations Abbott
4712 Whitetail Lane
Lansing, Michigan 48911 Office 517-646-6592
FAX 517-646-6593
Cell 352-219-5110