Brazil Threatens to Manufacture Patented AIDS Drug

The manufacturer, Roche Holding, already sells the drug nelfinavir, or Viracept, in Brazil at less than half the U.S. wholesale price.

Roche also said they are still in negotiations with Brazilian officials to offer the drug at still lower prices.

The nation’s health minister told reporters yesterday that Brazil will not wait for Roche to establish a new price. Instead they will begin to manufacture their own form of the drug, making it possible for the government to distribute nelfinavir free of charge.

“The company can evidently announce in the next few weeks that it will revise this agreement to meet our needs,” Jose Serra told reporters in Brasilia. “They can still do this, but we won’t wait for them, and we will begin production.”

Brazil has the highest number of AIDS patients in Latin America, with 203,000 confirmed cases. About a quarter of those patients use Viracept, consuming about 28 percent of Brazil’s anti-AIDS budget.

“This creates an emergency situation in buying drugs from abroad,” Serra said.

Brazil’s intellectual property laws state that patents can be stripped in the case of a national emergency or price gauging.

The United States complained to the World Trade Organization earlier this year about the law that also requires companies to begin manufacturing a drug in Brazil within three years or risk losing the patent altogether.

Brazil’s announcement could also have ramifications on drug manufacturing in other developing countries. India and South Africa, among others, have struggled with the costs of manufacturing anti-AIDS drugs for their HIV-positive populations.

A Roche spokesman, who called Wednesday’s move unexpected, said the company does not accept Brazil’s decision and still considers itself to be in ongoing negotiations.

“We were surprised to hear the news from the Brazilian government,” Roche spokesman Daniel Piller told the Associated Press. “We really think the government of Brazil is really committed to combating this dreadful disease, and in our point of view, we are still in negotiations with the Health Ministry.”

Brazil distributes anti-AIDS drugs free to anyone who needs them. Largely due to this program, the annual number of AIDS deaths in Brazil has fallen from 11,024 to 4,136 in four years.