Cipla Discounts AIDS Drugs for India

Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd. on Tuesday reduced domestic prices for its triple antiretroviral drug combination by 16% to 35% and cut prices of some individual drugs by 9% to 40%, Reuters Health reports. A triple drug combination of lamivudine, stavudine and nevirapine will now cost patients $90.64 per month, a 35% discount from the previous price of $138.85. Cipla Joint Managing Director Amar Lulla told Reuters that the returns to the company were about equal to what it would get from the concessional prices it was offering international governments. Cipla last month announced that it would offer AIDS medicines to international governments at $600 per patient per year, and to Doctors Without Borders for $350 per patient per year. According to a statement, the drug maker will soon manufacture more HIV medications, like the protease inhibitor indinavir and the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor efavirenz, in India (Reuters Health, 2/27).