The AIDS Beacon™

A report card released today by the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC) gave the nine largest pharmaceutical companies a combined grade of C- in pricing of their antiretroviral therapies.

The ATAC report card assessed Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffman La Roche, Merck & Co., Pfizer, and Tibotec in five areas: drug development and plans, access to treatment, U.S. pricing, community relations, and marketing practices.

The highest overall grades, both B’s, went to Merck and Tibotec. Merck produces Isentress (raltegravir) and Crixivan (indinavir sulfate); Tibotec makes Intelence (etravirine) and Prezista (darunavir). The lowest overall grade, an F, was given to Abbott Laboratories, maker of Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) and Norvir (ritonavir).

In the past week, several major pharmaceutical companies have felt increased pressure from AIDS groups to make their HIV/AIDS drugs more affordable.

On September 3, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) charged Merck with “criminal” pricing of Isentress. The integrase inhibitor was recently cleared as an option for HIV patients who are starting an antiretroviral regimen for the first time. The move makes Isentress the most expensive first-line anti-HIV drug, at $12,864 per patient per year.

“Cash-strapped [Alcohol and Drug Awareness Programs] and Medicaid programs will go bankrupt if these government programs — and the taxpayers who fund them — are forced to continue subsidizing the cost of new medicines like Isentress that are priced unjustifiably high,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein in a press release.

AHF will send postcards to residents of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, home to Merck headquarters, to raise awareness of Isentress costs. The postcards feature Merck CEO Richard Clark beneath the words, “WANTED: Criminal AIDS Drug Pricing.”

In the United Kingdom, the Guardian reports that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has met pressure to pool its HIV drug patents, which would allow inexpensive copies of its drugs to be manufactured in the developing world. On Sunday, fifteen leading organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF, sent a letter to GSK CEO Andrew Witty urging him to lift legal restraints that allow the company exclusive manufacturing rights for 20 years.

In a letter to the Guardian defending its practices, Chris Strutt, a senior vice-president at GlaxoSmithKline, said that “we have not ruled out the possibility of participating in the pool, but have yet to see any real proposal that provides benefits beyond GSK’s existing approach.” GSK has developed its own patent pool and has cut prices in developing nations to 75 percent of price levels in industrialized countries, according to the article in the Guardian. GSK has also promised to reinvest 20 percent of its profits from AIDS drugs in the developing world.

Nevertheless, ATAC, which issued the drug company report card, notes that price increases of antiretrovirals have typically been at least double the rate of inflation. “People with HIV, especially those who have run out of treatment options, need new alternatives for the long run,” said  Bob Huff, a member of ATAC’s Board of Directors in a press release, “and pharmaceutical companies need to work closely with the community to help get there.”

For more information, please see the ATAC report card (pdf), ATAC press release (pdf), or AHF press release.