GSK: "Combivir's price goes no lower"

GlaxoSmithKline has been reported as saying that the price to developingcounties of its antiretroviral drug treatment Combivir (zidovudine plus lamivudine) for HIV/AIDS will be reduced no further than the 90% discount to the average world price at which it has already been offered.

A company spokesman said that the offer of a 90% price cut represents "a huge reduction," and added: "we are not going to go further because we would get into a ridiculous situation," reports Reuters.

GSK had been asked if the 90% cut in Combivir's price was its final offer after a statement from South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had said that while the country's government had no objection in principal to the use of antiretrovirals in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, "cost remains an enormous barrier that cannot be wished away."