| | |  Health & Beauty | March 2009 
AIDS Activists Claim Victory: Abbott Cuts Mexican Price of Kaletra 20%
 Business Wire
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| | Kaletra is a leading treatment for HIV. Kaletra tablets offer patients improved convenience without compromising critical viral suppression. | |
Mexico City - A coalition of AIDS activists known as the Coalicion de Activistas por el Acceso Universal, spearheaded by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which operates four free treatment clinics in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Tuxtla Gutierrez and Pachuca), declared victory today in its campaign to lower drug prices and improve access to lifesaving AIDS treatments in Mexico.
As a result of the coalition’s prolonged, multinational campaign to raise awareness about the high price charged by Abbott Laboratories Inc. for its key AIDS drug, Kaletra in Mexico, the company has cut its price by twenty percent — from $4688.00 pesos MXN per patient per month to $3750.40 MXN. The new lower price was published for the first time last Friday on the website of CENSIDA, Mexico’s National Center for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS.
"The price of Abbott’s Kaletra has officially dropped to $3750.40 Mexican pesos per patient monthly down from $4688 pesos, the price Abbott had been charging the Mexican government for its key AIDS drug for the past several years. This is wonderful news for HIV/AIDS patients throughout Mexico," said Dr. Jorge Saavedra, AHF’s Chief of Global Affairs, who previously served as the General Director of CENSIDA in Mexico for several years.
“Credit for this achievement must go primarily to the persistence of activists in the Coalicion de Activistas por el Acceso Universal, of which AHF is a founding member, with assistance from President Calderon and the Secretary of Health. Ongoing protests, street actions and media campaigns in Mexico and the U.S. over the past year has kept the spotlight on Kaletra pricing in Mexico and kept pressure on Abbott to do the right thing and cut the price. We need to also give credit to the Price Negotiations Committee of the Mexican Government, to which AHF provided significant information and data on ARV prices paid by other countries for Kaletra."
The coalition has criticized Abbott for exploiting patent protections in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to charge Mexico five times more than other middle-income countries for Kaletra. At the time the public awareness campaign began, Abbott was charging Mexico $4688.00 MXN (or $5,400 USD) a year for Kaletra, a key second-line treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS, while charging $1,000 USD per year in Brazil — a country with a similar economy to Mexico.
The advocacy efforts undertaken by AHF and the coalition have been multi-pronged and multi-national. Public awareness advertisements headlined “Shame on Abbott” appeared last fall in publications in Chicago, Illinois — where Abbott is based — and in Mexico. Postcards revealing Abbott’s “terrible record on AIDS” and detailing the company’s history of putting “profit ahead of saving lives” were widely distributed in Chicago. Earlier this year, simultaneous protests in Mexico, the US and Colombia targeting Abbott over the pricing of Kaletra garnered significant media coverage in Mexico and throughout Latin America.
“We are grateful that Abbott has significantly lowered the price of Kaletra in Mexico, and very proud of the work done by AIDS activists in our coalition who helped make this price cut finally happen,” said Patricia Campos, M.D., AHF’s Latin America Bureau Chief, who is based in Mexico and is a principal coordinator of the Coalicion de Activistas por el Acceso Universal. “Many patients in Mexico depend on access to drugs such as Kaletra, which has long been available at a much, much lower cost in other countries like Brazil. Now, many more patients here in Mexico may have access to this lifesaving drug as well.”
AHF will continue to press Abbott to lower the price of Kaletra in Colombia which, at $3,500 USD per patient per year, is still priced far too high to make it accessible to people in need. By contrast, Abbott charges $500 USD per patient per year in Guatemala and Honduras. In order to prevent needless suffering and loss of life, AHF will continue to call on Abbott to lower the price of Kaletra in Colombia to equal the lowest available price in other Latin American countries.
“Abbott’s pricing of Kaletra has previously kept this drug out of reach for nearly all those living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico. Due to the tenacity our coalition activists, who relentlessly protested and highlighted the pricing issue over the past year, it seems that Abbott finally had a change of heart on pricing in Mexico. For this I both salute our activists’ efforts and laud Abbott for its price cut,” said Michael Weinstein, AHF President. “That ‘thanks’ said, we still intend to press Abbott for an end to its price-gouging policies in Colombia on Kaletra that shamefully continue to place profits ahead of saving lives. We ask that Abbott immediately institute a similar price cut on Kaletra in Colombia, and vow to employ similar advocacy and media efforts in this cause in Colombia as well.”
Kaletra in Mexico
• Mexico is a middle income country with an average income per capita of $7,454 USD per year. 200,000 people are living with AIDS.
• Mexico is unable to provide treatment to all those who need it. UNAIDS estimates that 33,000 people with AIDS who need ARV therapy now (43% of the total), are not currently accessing it in Mexico. Mexico’s government is spending $155 million USD each year for AIDS drugs.
• In contrast to Abbott, ALL other drug companies have offered significant price reductions. Advocacy and negotiations between the Mexican Government and the major companies resulted in significant drops in price in 2008 alone. GlaxoSmithKline accepted a 40% price reduction for Abacavir, while Merck, Sharpe, and Dohme accepted a 40% price reduction for Efavirenz.
About AHF: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 98,000 individuals in 21 countries worldwide in the U.S., Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org |
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