There seems little doubt that Hoffmann-La Roche's Invirase (saquinavir), which became the first protease inhibitor to be approved for treating HIV infection on December 7 (Marketletter December 11) and has since been launched onto the market in the USA, will offer a real improvement in therapy. However, concerns have already been raised over the cost of the drug.
Roche has said that the wholesale price of the product will be about $5,800 a year, but was not able to offer a retail price. Nevertheless, this would price it at about three times existing AIDS drugs, according to Martin Delaney of the AIDS treatment group Project Inform. He noted that as the drug must be used in combination with nucleoside analogs "the cost of therapy is going to go up dramatically."
A Roche spokesman agreed that the drug is a "really expensive product," but noted that the company is setting up a program to help patients get insurance coverage for Invirase, and to make it available to the uninsured.
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