Merck and Co reduces AIDS medicine price by 20 per cent

Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co has reduced the cost of its HIV/AIDS drug Stocrin for epidemic-hit and developing countries.

The 600 mg version of the drug, a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), will be reduced in cost by 20 per cent to $0.76 a day or $277.40 (?159.60) per patient per year. A 200 mg version will be priced at $394.20 (?226.84).

It said that cost efficiencies and new manufacturing processes had allowed it to make the price decreases. Merck CEO Richard T Clark said the company hoped to reduce the price of the medicine “in the future” through continued manufacturing cost cutting.

The announcement brought praise from the executive director of UNAIDS, Dr Peter Piot. “The cost of antiretroviral therapies from both research-based and generic pharmaceutical companies has declined dramatically in recent years,” he said.

“We hope that this trend accelerates as the global community gears up to come as close as possible to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for all who need it by 2010.”

The company will offer the reduced prices to countries with either a low categorisation in the UN’s human development index (HDI) or a prevalence of HIV/AIDS in one per cent or more of the population.

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