BMS boosts access to HIV drug Reyataz in Brazil
pharmafile | November 14, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Bristol-Myers Squibb has signed a technology transfer agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to expand access to once-daily HIV protease inhibitor Reyataz.
Under the terms of the agreement, BMS will transfer the manufacture and distribution of Reyataz (atazanavir sulphate) 200mg and 300mg capsules to the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s technical-scientific unit Farmanguinhos.
Reyataz is one of two big-selling HIV drugs developed by BMS, bringing in $1.48 billion to the company’s coffers last year. It also sells Sustiva (efavirenz), which brought in $1.37 billion in the same year.
BMS’ emerging markets president Mark Pavao said the technology transfer agreement will ensure a sustainable supply of atazanavir in the future in Brazil, with the government eventually becoming the sole source of the drug. An unnamed local manufacturer will make the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for the product and supply it to the government.
Pharma firms have come under fire in recent months for not doing enough to improve access to HIV medicines in middle-income countries. Last July, Medecins sans Frontieres said that countries such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Ukraine, Colombia and Brazil with significant HIV populations were being excluded from discounting programmes designed to cut the cost of antiretroviral therapy.
BMS has been taking steps to improve access to its medicines, and in July started negotiations with the Medicines Patent Pool, a UNITAID-backed organisation dedicated to bringing down the prices of HIV drugs through voluntary licensing of intellectual property.
“The agreement … provides an opportunity to increase access to this medicine and supports the Brazilian government’s interests in the further development of its local pharmaceutical manufacturing base,” said Pavao.
Last month, BMS signed an agreement with Gilead Sciences to develop and market a fixed-dose combination product based on Reyataz and Gilead’s cobicistat, a pharmaco-enhancing agent that increases blood levels of certain HIV medicines to potentially allow for one pill, once-daily dosing.
Phil Taylor
