Cipla quarrels with AIDS activists on price of drug

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Cipla quarrels with AIDS activists on price of drug

by Marc Iskowitz, August 10, 2007

Accusations by AIDS advocates regarding the policies of Indian drug

maker Cipla have led to a full-on dust-up between the two.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, known for targeting drug companies

for their AIDS drug pricing and global access issues, mounted a new

advocacy campaign yesterday challenging Cipla for an alleged price

disparity between what the firm charges for its generic drugs in

India vs. Africa. Cipla refuted the over-pricing charges in ads of

its own, adding that it is " consulting our legal experts. "

The skirmish is the latest example of a drug firm talking tough with

AIDS activists. Earlier this year, Abbott Labs surprised industry

observers by suing a French AIDS group for trying to take down its

Web site in a cyber attack. The suit followed other aggressive moves

by Abbott, like quintupling the price of one of its drugs in the US

and abandoning plans to introduce an improved formulation of an AIDS

drug in Thailand. In the past, such aggressive measures against AIDS

organizations were considered bad public relations for a corporation.

As part of its campaign, AHF held a press conference in New Delhi and

published an ad headlined, " Profit at What Cost? AIDS Drugs for All, "

that appeared in the Indian newspapers. It called on Cipla Chairman

Dr. Yusuf Hamied to address the price difference.

" I am saddened that India's own Cipla charges two-and-one-half times

as much in India as it does in Africa for its Viraday tablets,

Cipla's generic three-in-one combination antiretroviral therapy that

patients have to take just once a day, " said Chinkholal Thangsing,

M.D., AHF's Asia Pacific bureau chief. " This significant price

difference contributes to the fact that far fewer Indians have access

to such lifesaving AIDS therapies. "

In response, Cipla ran its own advertisement in various newspapers

disagreeing with the charge. " Not one pack of AIDS drug Viraday has

been sold by Cipla in Africa [to] date, " the company said in a

statement.

Cipla called the AHF ad—which claimed it sold Viraday at Rs 54,000

per patient per year in India vs. Rs 21,200 per patient per year in

Africa— " defamatory. "

Cipla launched Viraday last fall. The three-drug combination pill is

a copy of the Bristol-Myers Squibb/Gilead Sciences drug Atripla,

approved last year by the FDA. At the time, Cipla said it would

charge about a tenth of the international price for the drug. The

company also said it was registering Viraday in various parts of

Africa.

AHF said other Indian drug makers aren't immune from similar price

reviews, naming Ranbaxy, Emcure, Aurobindo and Genex, but that it

initially targeted Cipla because it's the largest.

http://www.mmm-online.com/Cipla-quarrels-with-AIDS-activists-on-price-

of-drug/article/24930/