Campaign Challenges Cipla Over Drug Pricing in India

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Campaign Challenges Cipla Over Drug Pricing in India: 'Profit at What

Cost? AIDS Drugs for All'

Wed Aug 8, 5:40 PM ET

NEW DELHI, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing

global campaign to lower drug prices and improve access to lifesaving

AIDS treatments worldwide, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which

operates free AIDS treatment clinics in India under AHF India Cares

(in Mysore, New Delhi and in Guwahati, Assam in collaboration with

the National AIDS Control Organization) -- will host a press

conference in New Delhi on Thursday August 9th with several Indian

civil society partners and co-sponsors to unveil a print

advertisement in a new advocacy campaign that challenges Cipla, the

Indian drug maker, for its steep prices for Cipla's generic AIDS

drugs in India.

AHF is launching this new campaign targeting generic drug over-

pricing beginning with a focus on Cipla. AHF and the coalition are

well aware that other drug companies including Ranbaxy, Emcure,

Aurobindo and Genex are not immune to similar review, which will

follow the launch of this initial advertisement focusing on Cipla,

the largest company.

The print ad being unveiled and first published this week is

headlined, " Profit at What Cost? AIDS Drugs for All. " The ad will

appear in the prominent Indian newspapers, 'The Hindu' (Delhi), 'The

Indian Express' and 'The Financial Express' (both based in Mumbai) on

Thursday August 9th.

Cipla, the world's largest manufacturer of antiretroviral drugs to

fight HIV/AIDS (as measured by units produced, distributed and sold-

not overall revenue), is best-known for manufacturing economical

generic anti-AIDS drugs used throughout Africa. However, advocates

have long wondered why Cipla's life-saving AIDS medicines cost far

more in India-some more than twice as much-than what Cipla charges

for the very same anti-AIDS drugs it exports to Africa. As a result

of this seemingly incongruous price disparity, AIDS Healthcare

Foundation is spearheading an effort to highlight and question Cipla

and its Chairman, Dr. Yusuf Hamied, on these price differences.

" As an HIV/AIDS medical provider, I see firsthand at AHF's clinics in

India and around the globe how antiretroviral treatment can save and

improve the lives of people living with HIV or AIDS, " said Chinkholal

Thangsing, M.D., Asia Pacific Bureau Chief for the AIDS Healthcare

Foundation, and who is based in New Delhi. " However, 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. This significant price difference contributes

to the fact that far fewer Indians have access to such lifesaving

AIDS therapies.

We are asking Dr. Yusuf Hamied, Cipla's Chairman, to lower the price

in India for this potentially lifesaving AIDS combination that for

now is simply unaffordable and as a result out of reach for millions

of HIV positive people in need in India. "

Viraday is Cipla's generic formulation of Atripla, an all-in-one

antiretroviral treatment (ART) combination that includes the drugs

efavirenz, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. Bristol

Myers-Squibb and Gilead Sciences manufacture Atripla. In India, Cipla

currently sells Viraday for 54,000 rupees (USD $1,344) per patient,

per year (PPY); however the generic Indian drug giant charges only

21,200 rupees (USD $528) PPY when it exports the combination AIDS

therapy to countries in Africa.

" Cipla's corporate slogan is 'None shall be denied,' yet the price

differences between Africa and India all but assure that many

patients in need in India will in fact be denied access to Cipla's

lifesaving AIDS treatments, " said Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare

Foundation President in a statement from Los Angeles. " We are asking

Cipla to cut its price in India for Viraday down to the price it

charges in Africa. Through this ad, we also want to make policy

makers and the public-at-large aware of this striking inequity in

Cipla's pricing. As it stands now, it appears that Cipla's pricing

policies in India put profits before people. "

The print advertisement, a four-color ad that runs a full-page in one

newspaper (the Hindu) and a half-page in each of the others (Indian

Express and Financial Express), includes a striking quote from

Cipla's Chairman from a June 2004 interview in the

periodical, 'Positive Nation.' In it, Dr. Hamied

stated, " Pharmaceutical companies don't price their drugs according

to cost but rather to their market value. The customers for drugs in

India cannot afford to pay high costs for drugs. So what's the point

of charging obscene prices? "

The ad also includes a call to action asking concerned readers to

contact Dr. Hamied and Cipla to, " Demand that Cipla Live Up to Its

Promise -- Reduce Drug Prices to Save Lives in India. " People are

asked to call or write Cipla at (9122) 23082891 or via email at

corporate@....

" Without access to second-line therapies, I would probably not be

alive today, " states Francisco Xavier De Melo, President of India's

Love Life Society-Delhi Network of MSM+. " I am very lucky as very few

Indian people have access to second-line therapy. It is too

expensive -- but it is a matter of life and death for many of us.

Positive people look to Cipla to help make treatment accessible. "

History of AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Drug Pricing and Access

Advocacy

Over the years AHF has had a long, outspoken and successful history

of advocacy and outreach regarding AIDS drug pricing and access

issues around the globe. This advocacy has often occurred via direct

meetings and correspondence with drug company officials; through

press conferences and press statements; via the filing of lawsuits;

through lobbying government officials; via the mounting of protests

and awareness campaigns; and through the placement of advertisements

and calls to action, such as the current, " Profits at What Costs?

AIDS Drugs for All, " in India.

Contact: India: Dr. Chinkholal Thangsing, Asia Pacific Bureau Chief,

+91.11.(0)98.1827.0687 Mobile,

Terri Ford, Director of Global Advocacy, +1-213-399-1001 Mobile;

or Los Angeles: Ged Kenslea, AHF Communications Director, +1-323-791-

5526 Mobile, +1-323-860-5225 Work,

Lori Yeghiayan, AHF Associate Director of Communications, +1-323-377-

4312 Mobile, +1-323-860-5227 Work, all of AIDS Healthcare Foundation

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