Glaxo Cuts Aids Drug Prices in Africa

The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, criticised for the unaffordable cost of its life-saving Aids drugs in Africa, said yesterday that it was cutting the prices of Aids and malaria drugs in the poorest countries by up to a third.

Campaigners applauded the news but pointed out that the prices of generic versions of Glaxo's vital drugs, made in India or Thailand, were still lower.

There was speculation that the cuts are linked to negotiations with the mining company Anglo American, which plans to give Aids drugs to its workforce in South Africa.

Anglo American is thought to be in discussions with generics companies too.

But in London GSK's spokesman Martin Sutton denied that there was a link.

The company, which has been offering discount rates to poor countries for two years, was able to drop the prices further because of economies of scale, as increasing quantities of Aids drugs and anti-malarials are bought and shipped to developing countries, he said.

"We have always said that as volumes increase, as we hope that they will, then there may be scope for further reductions," he added.

Sales of the Aids drug Combivir had risen tenfold, he said. Its price would drop by a third to $1.70 (just over £1) a day.

Glaxo is also offering its discounted prices to a wider clientele, including essential workers such as teachers and nurses who do not have health insurance.

But even at the new prices, only a small minority of people in the poorest countries will be able to afford treatment, campaigners point out.

"It is a good step and it is great they are expanding access," Mohga Smith of Oxfam said.

"But the problem is that it still leaves the resolution of prices in company hands. And what about other diseases?

"Will we still have to lobby on every medicine and every disease?"

Poor countries should be guaranteed the right to make their own generic drugs and import them from elsewhere.