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From: Rob.Bates@p1.f381.n634.z3.fidonet.org (Rob Bates)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Australian AIDS News
Message-ID: <28625@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 28 Oct 89 23:13:14 GMT
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ACTIVIST CLAIMS 1,800% AZT PROFIT

(Reproduced with permission from MELBOURNE STAR OBSERVER #107, Friday 20  
October 1989. All rights resevered. (C) Oz Media Pty Ltd Melbourne Australia.)

The Makers of AZT - the only proven treatment for AIDS - are making a profit of  
between 900 and 1,800 per cent on the drug, according to the AIDS Council of  
New South Wales (ACON) Executive Director Bill Whittaker.

The company, Burroughs Wellcome, late last month reduced the price  
internationally by 20 per cent. Whittaker said that this was not enough, and  
accused the company of profiteering.

"AZT will retail for $1.50 per capsule under the new price reduction,"  
Whittaker said.

"The AIDS Council has obtained information that AZT costs between seven cents  
and 15 cents per capsule to manufacture.

"We find this markup of between 900 and 1,800 per cent absolutely outrageous.

"The average cost of bringing a new drug to market is estimated at $145  
million. It's hard to imagine that Wellcome spent anything like this on AZT.

"The exorbitant cost of AZT has meant that governments have been forced to  
spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the drug over the past two years,  
leaving less money to be spent on preventative AIDS ecucation and services,"  
Whittaker said.

Wellcome Australia has denied the claims.

The company's pharmaceuticals director, Patrick Clear, said that Whittaker's  
claims on manufacturing cost - of seven to 15 cents per capsule - were "just  
nonsense".

"He has taken a hypothetical figure, and then drawn a percentage profit from  
that which is completely wrong," Clear said.

"I don't know what the margin is for Retrovir (Wellcome's brand name for AZT)

"It's imported fully-made, and that's the sort of information that's kept  
confidential. But I know what it costs to produce other products (with similar  
manufacturing methods) and it's far more than that," Clear said.

Whittaker's allegations were "distasteful, surprising and disappointing."

However, ACON's claims are in line with criticisms in the US. The  
Washington-based AIDS Action Council says the new 20 per cent price reduction  
was not enough.

Although Burroughs Wellcome is a large international conglomerate, much of its  
international profit derives from two antiviral drugs: the herpes drug  
acyclovir, and AZT.

AZT has now been approved in the US for some HIV patients who have not  
developed symptoms, and a worldwide boom in the drug's use is expected.

Wellcome shares have soared, and international criticism of the company has  
intensified. An editorial in the New York Times said the price was "inhuman"  
and said "all of the invention and most of the risk" of AZT development was  
borne by the US government.

The 20 per cent price reduction was a response to those events.

[From Sydney Star Observer]

Rob

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