DRUG PRICES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES INCREASINGLY THE FOCUS OF MANUFACTURERS, ADVOCACY GROUPS

Two companies have announced they are taking steps to provide easier access to needed medications in developing countries, while an advocacy group claims a third company is preventing access to HIV medication through an overload of patents.

Sanofi pasteur has entered an arrangement with Acambis to license a single-dose vaccine for Japanese encephalitis (JE) in endemic Asian-Pacific countries, the company said. The vaccine, ChimeriVax-JE, requires only one dose, while current JE vaccines require two or three, sanofi pasteur said. The company will introduce the vaccine throughout the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on large endemic countries, including Thailand and China. Approximately 30,00050,000 people, mainly in Asia, suffer from JE each year, the company said.

Merck will focus on making its HIV medication Stocrin (efavirenz) more available to developing countries by lowering the drug's price. Merck will reduce the cost by 14.5 percent to $237.24 per year for patients in countries in the low category of the Human Development Index (HDI) and medium HDI countries with an adult HIV prevalence of 1 percent or greater. In medium HDI countries with an HIV rate of less than 1 percent, Merck will reduce the price of 600-mg Stocrin by 5.8 percent to $657 per patient per year, the company said.

However, according to the advocacy group Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), some developing countries may face obstacles to getting HIV medications because of a patent scheme by Gilead. The group has filed a petition with the FTC claiming that Gilead unfairly controls ingredients in HIV medications. The company's patent scheme imposes higher costs for HIV drugs in more than 150 developing country markets, according to KEI.