*EPF511 01/24/2003
Text: Pilot Program to Provide Cheap AIDS Drug to Poor Countries
(Dutch non-profit to receive license from U.S.-based drug maker) (1060)

A U.S.-based pharmaceutical company has announced the launch of a pilot program designed to make its AIDS drug available at a lower price to poor countries stricken by the AIDS epidemic.

In a January 24 news release issued at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Pharmacia Corporation said it would transfer licenses and manufacturing information for the AIDS drug Rescriptor to the International Dispensary Association (IDA), a Dutch non-profit organization that works to get generic drugs into developing countries. IDA will then allow makers of generic drugs to sell cheaper versions of Rescriptor -- known generically as delavirdine -- in countries where the annual per capita income is less than 1,200 dollars or the HIV infection rate is above 1 percent.

Up to 78 countries could be covered by the program, including all of sub-Saharan Africa, Pharmacia said.

The program is based on an approach outlined by representatives of Pharmacia, the IDA and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in the current issue of the medical journal The Lancet.

Leading drug makers have generally resisted awarding non-exclusive licenses to generic firms, fearing that cut-price drugs would be smuggled back into rich countries and thus undermine their primary markets.

"This is an innovative approach to the complex access issue that we believe deserves to be tested in real world conditions," Pharmacia Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fred Hassan said in the news release.

Benefits of this approach include its protection of companies' intellectual property rights, which Hassan described as "essential to foster continued investment in the research that will generate new medical breakthroughs."

Following is the text of the news release:

(begin text)

Pharmacia to Launch Pilot Programme for Expanding Access to Needed Medicines in World's Poorest Countries

24 January 2003 - Davos, Switzerland

At the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2003, Pharmacia Corporation announced the launch of a pilot programme as a model for expanding access to needed medicines for the poorest populations in the developing world. Under the programme, in partnership with the International Dispensary Association Foundation (IDA), Pharmacia will grant non-exclusive licences for delavirdine, a medicine for HIV/AIDS, to generic pharmaceutical companies that agree to manufacture and supply the product to the world's poorest countries.

Delavirdine, marketed in the U.S. as Rescriptor (delavirdine mesylate tablets), is an oral, non-nucleoside reverse transcritpase inhibitor (NNRTI), developed by Pharmacia for use in patients with HIV infection. Delavirdine was approved and launched in the United States in 1997 and is among the antiretroviral therapies recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Under the not-for-profit pilot programme, Pharmacia will transfer its proprietary manufacturing technology and regulatory dossier for delavirdine to IDA. IDA, in turn, will be empowered to select any generic companies that meet its quality manufacturing standards. As the world's largest non-profit supplier of generic medicines to developing countries and relief agencies, IDA is uniquely positioned to facilitate the manufacturing and supply of generic delavirdine in eligible countries.

The pilot programme has the potential to benefit HIV/AIDS patients in 78 developing countries including all of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The combined population of these countries is approximately 3.8 billion [3,800 million] people. Under the programme, countries with a per capita Gross National Income of less than US$ 1,200 or an HIV infection rate of more than 1 percent are eligible to receive generic delavirdine.

"This is an innovative approach to the complex access issue that we believe deserves to be tested in real world conditions," said Fred Hassan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacia Corporation. "In particular, it brings together the broad array of stakeholders needed to effectively address access needs for the most needy populations in the world, within a framework that sustains the intellectual property protections that are essential to foster continued investment in the research that will generate new medical breakthroughs."

The pilot programme to be launched is based on an approach proposed by representatives of Pharmacia, IDA and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in the current issue of the journal The Lancet. The authors of the paper, Michael Friedman, MD (Pharmacia), Henk den Besten MBA (IDA) and Amir Attaran, DPhil. (Harvard), propose that pharmaceutical patent holders consider awarding voluntary licences to generic manufacturers who agree to manufacture and supply high-quality, effective medicines to the world's poor and developing countries. The article stresses that one of the greatest benefits of out-licensing programmes will come from providing medicines that treat the leading causes of infectious mortality and morbidity in developing countries, in particular treatments for HIV/AIDS.

The World Economic Forum's Global Health Initiative works to increase the quality and quantity of business engagement against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The Global Health Initiative also serves as the focal point for business engagement to the Global Fund. In these roles, the Global Health Initiative upholds the World Economic Forum's commitment to bring together key actors to address the world's most pressing issues.

Pharmacia Corporation (NYSE:PHA) is a top-tier global pharmaceutical company whose innovative medicines and other products save lives and enhance health and wellness. Pharmacia's 43,000 people work together with many diverse stakeholders to bring these benefits to people around the world, and to create new health solutions for the future. On 15 July 2002, Pharmacia and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced the signing of a definitive agreement providing for Pfizer to acquire Pharmacia in a stock-for-stock transaction that is expected to close in the first quarter of 2003.

Photos of our events can be downloaded free of charge for journalists at http://www.swiss-image.ch/worldeconomicforum (login required).

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world. The Forum provides a collaborative framework for the world's leaders to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship.

Incorporated as a foundation, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. The Forum has NGO [non-government organization] consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents