Pfizer Lowers Price of AIDS Drug, Will Provide Some Free

Pfizer Inc., hoping to grab market share and skirt the controversy over the pricing of AIDS drugs that has dogged other companies, said Thursday that it will donate 6,000 bottles of its new antifungal agent fluconazole to AIDS and cancer treatment centers around the country.

Pfizer also announced that its price for the drug in the United States, where the drug received Food and Drug Administration approval last month, would be 20% to 30% below the price in Europe. It will be available through normal distribution channels Feb. 16.

New York’s People With AIDS Health Group, which had been importing the drug from overseas for desperate patients, applauded Pfizer’s gestures.

Still, Derek Hodel, the group’s director, said the $284 monthly price tag for a typical 200-milligram-a-day maintenance dose “is very expensive and will place the drug outside the reach of people without access to reimbursement programs.”

Company officials and spokesmen defended the price.

Dr. John Jefferis, a senior vice president of the New York pharmaceutical concern, said it is rushing the donated drugs to 200 treatment centers this week “to ensure that patients in critical need will receive it immediately.”

The drug, whose trade name is Diflucan, is approved to combat such AIDS complications as thrush, systemic candidiasis and cryptococcal meningitis. It can also be used in certain cancer and transplant patients who suffer from these conditions.

For cryptococcal meningitis, the drug, which is usually taken in pill form, is expected to be a strong competitor to Bristol-Myers Squibb’s amphotericin B. That drug, also known as Fungizone, must be administered intravenously and has side effects that can be so unpleasant that some people with AIDS derisively refer to it as “ampho-terrible.”

Pfizer, in a press release, said its drug offers economic benefits over amphotericin B because patients on the Pfizer product require fewer days in the hospital. Bristol-Myers Squibb wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The high prices of such AIDS drugs as Burroughs Wellcome’s AZT and Lyphomed’s pentamidine have sparked protests by AIDS activists and in congressional hearings. For the pharmaceutical industry, the scrutiny has raised the unwelcome specter of price controls.

“Clearly, Pfizer is making an effort to placate the AIDS community,” Hodel said.