Living + Magazine Issue 1 - Positive Living BC

drug prices are rising and treatment activists are going
public with their
opposition to the
companies
THE
high
cost
OF survival
survival
one of the biggest problems associated with antiretroviral
drugs is their high cost. At an annual price tag
of $12,000 or more, triple therapies place a considerable
financial burden on those who buy them – individuals,
governments, and private insurers.
High prices limit access to these life-saving
medicines to a small percentage of
the HIV+ population in the world that
need them. Even in developed countries,
high prices preclude some people
from gaining access.
Recent developments indicate this
problem is about to get even worse. As
companies bring the latest drugs to market
they are now upping the ante even
more and holding people with HIV/
AIDS hostage.
American and Canadian regulators
recently licensed efavirenz (SUSTIVA)
which is the third non-nucleoside reverse
transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)
on the market. Nevirapine and
delavirdine, the other two NNRTIs both
cost about $3000/year. DuPont Pharma,
who makes and sells efavirenz, has
priced it at about $5000/year. This puts
the price closer to that of protease inhibitors
(PIs) which sell at $5000-$6000/
year and would be the first time that an
HIV drug is priced substantially outside
of the established range for its own class
of drugs.
Activists demonstrate at
Canadian Conference
After a series of communications with
the DuPont about this issue, AIDS treatment
activists went public with their anger
at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Research
Conference held in Victoria in
early June.
by GLEN HILLSON
JULY/AUGUST 1999 • LIVING + 21