ORGANIZATION ASKS CIPLA TO LOWER PRICE OF HIV DRUG IN INDIA

The president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has written a letter to the president of Indian drugmaker Cipla. AHF, which operates free HIV/AIDS treatment clinics in the U.S., Africa, Latin America and Asia, criticized the company for its high domestic price for its generic version of the HIV drug tenofovir. While praising the company for its successful efforts to lower the cost of lifesaving HIV/AIDS drugs in other parts of the developing world, such as Africa, the letter decries the company's failure to make these same drugs available at an affordable price in India.

In a March 2006 article in The New York Times on tenofovir, Cipla's president said that the drug is currently being offered in India for $700 per person per year, but will eventually be made available in Africa at $350 per person per year.

"Though it is commendable that Cipla plans to increase access to tenofovir in Africa with a lower drug price, the need for affordable HIV/AIDS drugs in India is equally great," said Michael Weinstein, AHF's president. "India is now the country with the most people living with HIV/AIDS in the world -- even surpassing South Africa, once the epicenter of the epidemic. With a gross national income per capita of $630, it is virtually impossible for the majority of the 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS in India to afford $700 per year for one AIDS drug, much less an entire regimen."