BRAZIL: A Brazilian health foundation signs an agreement with a U.S. drugmaker to begin manufacturing an anti-retroviral medication which is offered to patients with the HIV virus

Record ID: 402370

  • Title: BRAZIL: A Brazilian health foundation signs an agreement with a U.S. drugmaker to begin manufacturing an anti-retroviral medication which is offered to patients with the HIV virus
  • Date: 12th November 2011
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (NOVEMBER 11, 2011) (REUTERS) ( * BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) GENERAL VIEW OF EXTERIOR OF BRAZILIAN HEALTH FOUNDATION FIOCRUZ STATUE OUTSIDE FOUNDATION OFFICIALS FROM FIOCRUZ AND U.S. DRUGMAKER BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB ARRIVING TO MEETING VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS IN MEETING GENERAL VIEW OF MEETING VARIOUS OF WORKERS IN LABORATORY GENERAL VIEW OF OFFI
  • Embargoed: 27th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil, Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Health,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVADBSXIXEKZL4RSDASO8JRTZRTZ
  • Story Text: Brazilian health foundation Fiocruz announced on Friday (November 11) it will soon start manufacturing Atazanavir, an anti-retroviral medicine that is offered by the country's government as part of its successful AIDS program.
    Fiocruz signed an agreement with U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb, which owns patents for the drug until 2017, and is expected to begin producing the medicine in 2013.
    Around 43,000 Brazilians take Atazanavir as part of a controversial free drugs program that has pitted the country against giant international pharmaceutical companies.
    Fiocruz estimates it will be able to supply national demands by 2015, reducing government costs by 41 percent.
    Fiocruz director Paulo Gadelha said the deal would cut down the medication's prices.
    "With these agreements, Fiocruz has taken up the responsibility of manufacturing the medication from the beginning until the last production stages. As a consequence, the Ministry of Health will be able to reduce a lot of the medicine's prices, which are related to the costs," he said.
    Brazil's Ministry of Health spent around 128 million reais (74.9 million U.S. dollars) to buy 25.38 million pills of Atazanavir in 2011 alone.
    The South American giant has become a model in the AIDS fight by combining an aggressive prevention campaign that hands out millions of condoms all year round with a free treatment program that supplies anti-retroviral drugs to thousands of HIV/AIDS patients.
    The country currently makes most of the medicines used in the 'cocktails' and has managed to drop the prices of those drugs by more than 70 percent. A typical treatment costs about $4,500 dollars in Brazil, compared to about $20,000 in the United States.
    The government says 192,000 patients take part on the country's free treatment program that costs roughly $550,000 dollars per year. In Brazil, around 38,000 people are newly infected every year and roughly 630,000 live with the HIV virus, the largest number in Latin America. Yet, considering its 190 million population, the country has a relatively low infection rate of 0.6 percent.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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