AIDS Drug Price-Cut Welcomed, Hope for Further Reduction

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 02, 2001

AIDS Drug Price-Cut Welcomed, Hope for Further Reduction

Chinese health official and doctors welcomed the decision of Merck company to lower the price of its anti-AIDS drugs, but called for greater efforts to ensure affordable treatment for most Chinese patients.

Merck Sharp & Dohme (China) Ltd., a Shanghai-based pharmaceutical company under Merck & Co., has announced to cut factory prices of two AIDS drugs, Crixivan and Stocrin, by one third in China from this month.

Annual dose of the two protease inhibitor drugs for each user will cost 1,949 U.S. dollars, if no import tariffs, value-added tax and other costs such as distribution are calculated, the company said.

"Of course we are glad to hear this news. But it's still too high for most ordinary patients, especially those in poor rural areas," said Dr. Zhang Ke, who is in charge of clinical treatment for AIDS patients at the Beijing You'an Hospital.

Without the price cut, every patient who received the cocktail treatment by using imported medicines in China had to pay about 10,000 dollars annually, which is unlikely affordable for most patients, Zhang said.

It is estimated that China now has between 600,000 and 800,000carriers of HIV, the AIDS virus. The number would climb to ten million by the year 2010 if current growth rate, about 30 percent a year, is not slowed down, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang warned at the eve of the World AIDS Day.

China is not the only country facing a dilemma in providing medical treatment to AIDS patients - while respecting patent rights of AIDS drugs developed by pharmaceutical giants with enormous investment, major portion of HIV/AIDS sufferers find no way to get treatment due to unbearable costs.

"This reflects a global conflict between the protection of intellectual property rights and public health interests," said Shen Jie, director of the Ministry of Health Center of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control.

Shen said most countries have reached consensus in safeguardingpublic health interests, and many drug companies have also realized their own social responsibilities.

"The act (to cut the price) is the result of long and intensivenegotiations with the Ministry of Health of China, and is expectedto help slow down the HIV/AIDS epidemic in China," Merck said in apress release prepared by its public relations company in Beijing Friday night.

Three big western companies, namely Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., have been allowed by China's drug administration to sell their AIDS drugs.

Similar products of BoehringerIngelheim and Abott Laboratories have also obtained approvals to enter into China.

Spokesmen of these companies are not available for comment on Merck's price-cut decision or their plans. But Shen Jie said her center, on behalf of the health ministry, has held talks with the companies for a long period.

"We've made our efforts, and got positive supports from them," she said.

Dr. Zhang Fujie insisted that governmental departments concerned and the drug companies should move forward to lower drugprices, such as to reduce tariffs and costs in distribution, or toopen joint ventures to localize the drug production.

"All what we do is to help more patients to benefit from the advanced treatment. Now it's just a start," he said.