India's Cipla pricing claims disputed

The USA-based non-governmental organization, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has become embroiled in a dispute in India over the accuracy of its claims that the locally-based generic drug major Cipla sells a year's treatment of an antiretroviral drug in Africa for 21,200 rupees ($524) per patient versus 54,000 rupees in India.

The firm denies selling a generic formulation of US drug major Bristol Myers-Squibb and Gilead Sciences' Atripla (efavirenz, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) in Africa under the brand name Viraday, according to The Economic Times of India.

India's Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission launched an investigation into the pricing of the ARV, following the claim reported recently in the Marketletter that Cipla sold Viraday in Africa for 40% of the price in India (Marketletter August 20).