BRAZIL REACHES KALETRA AGREEMENT WITH ABBOTT

Brazil has reached a formal agreement with Abbott that nearly halves the price the government pays for the drugmaker's AIDS drug Kaletra.

The deal, which lowers the price of Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) to 63 cents per pill from $1.17, ends a standoff that began earlier this year when the Brazilian government threatened to break Abbott's patent on Kaletra if it didn't receive a price break on the drug. The parties announced recently that they were close to reaching an agreement.

Abbott praised the agreement, saying it "meets the government's need to expand patient access, respects Abbott's intellectual property and, most importantly, ensures that HIV/AIDS patients in Brazil will continue to have access to genuine Kaletra." In addition to lowering Kaletra's price, Abbott agreed to donate approximately $3 million of other pharmaceuticals to Brazil as part of the deal.

The agreement will also give Brazil access to a new version of Kaletra — called Meltrex — once the drug is approved in the U.S. Meltrex allows patients to take four tablets a day instead of six.

Abbott thought it had resolved the dispute with Brazil in July, but Brazil's health minister pulled out of the deal at the last minute. The earlier deal would have reportedly saved Brazil approximately $260 million between 2006 and 2011. The current deal calls for savings of roughly $340 million over the same six-year period, according to Brazil's Ministry of Health.