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To: Maurice Winn who wrote (61060)	3/16/2005 4:33:49 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

The collapse happened albeit in homeopatic doses.

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (61060)	3/16/2005 11:44:22 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 74559

Brazil Warns of Breaking AIDS Drug Patents By Associated Press March 16, 2005, 10:39 AM EST RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- In its latest bid to reduce the cost of HIV and AIDS drugs, Brazil's government has threatened to break the patents of American pharmaceutical firms unless they share their technology with local drug makers. Called "voluntary licensing," the policy is aimed at allowing government laboratories or Brazilian pharmaceutical manufacturers under government contract to produce generic versions of the drugs. "To guarantee the sustainability of our (AIDS) program, we need to produce these drugs ourselves," Jarbas Barbosa, a high-ranking official with Brazil's health ministry, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview Tuesday. "Even with recent price reductions that we obtained from drug producers, the total cost of retroviral (anti-AIDS) drugs is growing in an unbearable way." The country has given U.S. firms Abbott Laboratories Inc., Merck & Co. Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. until April 4 to agree on a schedule to transfer technology for the production of some of their AIDS drugs, Barbosa said. The drugs in question -- Abbott's combination pill of Lopinavir and Ritonavir, Merck's Efavirenz, and Gilead Science's Tenofovir -- will together cost Brazil $169 million this year, he added. That represents 67 percent of the government's budget for imported AIDS drugs. If the companies don't agree to the technology transfer, the government could employ "compulsory licensing," which in effect would mean a break of patents. "We're interested in a fast negotiation. But if we're obliged to use the compulsory licensing, we will do so as a last resort," Barbosa said. Abbott said the company was still evaluating how to react. A Merck spokeswoman said the company will respond to the government's notice within the given deadline. Gilead officials did not immediately comment. Among developing nations, Brazil is considered a success story in containing AIDS. By bombarding the public with safe sex campaigns and free condom distribution, the country of 183 million people has limited the spread of HIV to levels similar to those in Western Europe. Brazil also gives free anti-HIV and AIDS drugs free to anyone who needs them, but the government says the cost of providing them will surge and endanger the program. In recent years, Brazil has repeatedly managed to get price reductions on the drugs from big pharmaceutical companies by threatening to break patents. Merck, for example, has lowered the price for Efavirenz four times. But the government now says the price cuts have not been enough to contain rising costs. Brazil's AIDS program recently experienced shortages of treatment drugs in some cities after government labs ran low on raw materials. Barbosa said the problem was resolved with imports from the United States and Argentina.