Boeh Ingelheim amends Viramune license

German, privately-owned drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim says it has amended its voluntary licensing policy regarding the production of generic versions of its anti-HIV drug Viramune (nevirapine) in an effort to improve patient access. Currently, the firm issues short non-assert declarations to generic producers worldwide which, in practice, mean that patents on the drug are not enforced.

The company also revealed that it will cut the preferential price of branded versions of the drug to $0.60 per day in 78 countries defined as low-income according to World Bank classification. In addition, the former price of $1.20 that was previously applied to these countries will be extended to 67 middle-income nations, including those in some parts of eastern Europe and Central America.

Company chairman Alessandro Banchi said that "preferential pricing is the only way we can meet both conflicting needs in the fight against AIDS: we can refinance our high research and development costs for innovative new treatments by the established price system in industrialized countries and can offer affordable medicines to patients in poor countries that otherwise cannot afford antiretroviral medication."