Bayer's reasons for not giving Cipro away; USA slammed for "double

The chief executive of Bayer Corp in the USA, Helge Wehmeier, has saidthat the firm decided not to give its antibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin) away at no charge to treat the anthrax scare in the USA because if it had done so, it would have had to make the drug and give it away to "the entire free world," because "the people who share our values" are under equal threat of infection.

Mr Wehmeier was speaking on the NBC Today television program, during which he also discussed the offer made by manufacturers to give away seven antibiotics free to combat bioterrorism. These drugs include Bristol-Myers Squibb's Tequin (gatifloxacin) and Johnson & Johnson's Levaquin (levofloxacin), which are in the same class as Cipro but, Mr Wehmeier pointed out, they are not approved for the treatment of anthrax, and he added that if Cipro had not been approved for anthrax, Bayer would be offering it for free as well. "The fact is that we have a patent and a patent is something essentially American," he said.

B-MS and J&J have said they would donate up to 100 million tablets each if they were permitted to include anthrax treatment as an indication for the drugs.