Brazil issues Aids drug threat

By Corinne Podger
BBC correspondent

The Brazilian government has warned three major drug companies that they must dramatically lower the
price of anti-Aids drugs - or it will break their patents and allow cheap copies of the drugs to be imported.

By Corinne Podger
BBC correspondent

The Brazilian government has warned three major drug companies that they must dramatically lower the
price of anti-Aids drugs - or it will break their patents and allow cheap copies of the drugs to be imported.

Protesters around the world have called for cheaper drugs

The government took its first official step towards allowing generic drugs to be imported by passing a
decree changing drug regulations on Friday.

More than 500,000 Brazilians are HIV-positive or have Aids.

Since 1997, the government has offered free anti-Aids drugs to anyone who needs them - at a cost to the
country over $100m a year.

The Brazilian government has been engaged in talks with the three pharmaceutical firms, Merck, Roche
and Abbott, which produce the main drugs used in its national programme.

Negotiations continue

But, after failing to get an agreement on bringing the price of patented drugs down by around 40%, the
Brazilian government has now issued a decree changing its regulations.

The decree would allow cheap copies of drugs to be imported or produced locally.

Brazil's health minister, Humberto Costa, claimed the move would be protected under a new World
Trade Organisation resolution, which allows poor countries unable to produce vital drugs themselves to
import cheap copies.

Mr Costa said the generic drugs would probably be sourced from China and India, and said he would
know within a month whether the country would import generics or produce them in Brazil.

Roche, Merck and Abbott have said that negotiations will continue, and that they still hope an agreement
can be reached.