Abbott reduced the price of drugs for AIDS in poor countries

Abbott Laboratories, a major US pharmaceutical company, has agreed to reduce the price of drugs to treat AIDS for more than 40 poor countries. The announcement comes amid a controversy over the fact that AIDS patients in developing countries do not have access to Abbott-produced medicines that tend to increase.

The Chicago-based pharmaceutical company was sued last month after refusing to hand over the recipe for the latest versions of AIDS drugs to Thailand due to price disputes. As a result, Abbott's decision to reduce Kaletra's drug price by more than 55% in the markets of the countries that the World Bank (WB) classifies as having low and average per capita income, is rated by the public as a product. pole.

( President : Newmediaexplorer) President Michael Weinstein said this was a great victory for AIDS activists around the world before one of the three " giants " of the pharmaceutical industry.

It is known that after consulting with the World Health Organization (WHO), Abbott decided to reduce the cost of treating AIDS with Kaletra to $ 1,000 / year compared with the current cost of $ 2,200 / year. Kaletra is mainly used to treat AIDS patients, and is no longer suitable for early HIV / AIDS medicines.

In the statement, Abbott also said it would soon discuss with Abbott countries to respect the rights to produce AIDS medicines to increase the number of concessions to produce Kaletra / Aluvia in capsule and form. tablets with cheap prices.

Until now, the dispute with Thailand has not been resolved, but Abbott said it will apply a discount on the old version of AIDS drugs currently available at pharmacies in the Southeast Asian country. . However, according to the "Doctors Without Borders", this drug requires cold storage, not suitable for hot climates like in Thailand.