Cipla talks with MNCs over HIV drug offer

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer have reportedly asked the Indiangenerics manufacturer Cipla for more time to consider its offer of selling generic versions of their HIV/AIDS drugs in return for royalty payments of up to 5% of net sales.

Cipla has offered to sell its generic version of the three-drug antiretroviral cocktail, consisting of B-MS' Zerit (stavudine), GlaxoSmithKline's Epivir/3TC (lamivudine) and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Viramune (nevirapine), to Medecins sans Frontieres for $350 instead of the international price of around $10,000-$12,000, provided that the aid agency distributes it for free. Also included in the offer is Pfizer's Diflucan (fluconazole).

Late last year, Cipla's reportedly halted plans to export Duovir, its generic version of GSK's Combivir (zidovudine and lamivudine), to Ghana and Uganda after the latter had warned the Mumbai-based company that this would violate its exclusive patent rights (Marketletter December 11, 2000). However, the Financial Times reports GSK as saying that it did not follow this warning with any action, and adding that Duovir would not be significantly cheaper than the discounted Combivir which it is offering to governments in Africa.