Merck cuts price on AIDS drug Efavirenz

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. announced on Thursday a reduction in the price of its HIV-AIDS drug, Efavirenz, for poor countries and those hit hard by the disease, including Thailand.

Thailand, which shocked the drug maker in November when it announced plans to break Merck's patent in order to buy or make generic copies of Efavirenz, would see its price drop to 700 baht per patient per month, the company said in a statement.

Merck had previously sold Efavirenz at a non-profit price of 1,300 baht per treatment per month in Thailand.

"Merck is lowering the price of the 600 mg formulation of Efavirenz due to efficiencies resulting from improved manufacturing processes," the company said.

A spokesman for Merck's Thai subsidiary also attributed the lower Thai price to a more favorable exchange rate.

Last month, the Health Ministry issued compulsory licenses for the heart disease drug Plavix, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis and Abbott Laboratories' Kaletra to treat HIV/AIDS after a similar move on another AIDS drug last year.

The licenses, which Thai health officials said would save the country up to 800 million baht ($24 million) a year, drew praise from AIDS activists but flak from Washington and the drug industry, which are urging the ministry to rescind them.

Merck said it was the second time it had cut the price for a 600 mg formulation of Efavirenz in less than a year.

Least developed countries or middle-income nations with adult HIV prevalence rates of one percent or more will get a 14.5 percent reduction to $0.65 per day, or $237.25 per patient per month.

The price will drop 5.8 percent to $1.80 per day, or $657 per patient per year, for middle-income countries with an adult HIV rate of less than one percent.