Merck to Cut Prices on HIV Drugs in Africa

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck & Co. announced that it will drastically cut prices for two HIV drugs in AIDS-ravaged Africa and other developing parts of the world.

In a statement Wednesday, the company said it will make no profit when selling the two protease-inhibitor drugs in developing countries. The drugs will be made available at about one-tenth of their U.S. price.

Merck and other drug companies have come under sharp criticism from various governments and relief groups, which accuse them of keeping patented lifesaving medicines beyond the reach of the world’s poor.

“The reason we did this is we’re trying to speed the process of access to these medicines,” said Merck spokesman Greg Reaves. “We thought it would now spur other entities to get involved.”

More than 25 million of the 36 million people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world’s most impoverished regions. Developing countries in other areas will be evaluated for the reduced-price program on a case-by-case basis, Reaves said.

Reaves said the company is looking in particular at “those countries where clearly the disease is most devastating, and also where economic conditions are devastating.”

Merck, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of AIDS drugs, makes Crixivan and Stocrin, which suppress HIV levels in the body and can be used alone or in drug combinations known as AIDS cocktails.

Crixivan, which sells for $6,016 per patient per year in the United States, will be sold in developing countries for $600 a year; Stocrin, whose U.S. equivalent Sustiva costs $4,730 per patient per year, will be sold for $500 a year.

Merck said the treatments will be available at a reduced price to governments, relief agencies and others who can provide them to patients, on the condition that the drugs be used only in the countries where they are sold.

Protease inhibitors, introduced in the mid-1990s, revolutionized AIDS treatment, transforming the disease from a death sentence into a manageable chronic ailment for many patients. The drugs typically are mixed with two other, older medicines such as AZT and 3TC.

Officials with Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning relief agency, welcomed Merck’s announcement but cautioned that the reduced price could still leave the drugs out of reach for many of Africa’s AIDS patients.