Matrix launches cost-effective AIDS drug regimen

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Matrix launches cost-effective AIDS drug regimen

Drug costs to fight HIV/AIDS are set to go down further thanks to the launch of a new, second line regimen by Matrix Labs and the Clinton Foundation.

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Hyderabad, Aug. 7

Drug costs to fight HIV/AIDS are set to go down further thanks to the launch of a new, second line regimen by Matrix Labs and the Clinton Foundation.

The cost-effective once-daily HIV/AIDS treatment regimen of four ARVs (anti-retrovirals) will be available for under $500 annually.

The Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI), Mylan Inc., and the Hyderabad-based Matrix Laboratories, a global producer of ARVs, have signed an agreement for this.

Announcing the agreement today in New York, the former US President, Mr Bill Clinton, the Mylan Chairman and CEO, Mr Robert J. Coury, and the Matrix Laboratories Founder and Vice-Chairman, Mr N. Prasad, said that Atazanavir (ATV), Ritonavir (RTV), Tenofovir (TDF), and Lamivudine (3TC) would be available in three pills, with Tenofovir and Lamivudine combined into one.

All the four drugs are needed to enable the once-daily treatment of patients who have developed resistance to standard first-line ARVs.

The three pills are being made available as separate products at a total price of less than $475/patient a year.

From 2010, Matrix will also sell the pills together in one package - a 'second-line-in-a-box' - at $425 annually.

This will be 28 per cent lower than the current lowest priced alternative available in the market.

These new products and prices will be available to governments that are members of the Clinton Foundation's Procurement Consortium across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, a press release said.

'Second-line-in-a-box'

The new Matrix product announced today will create a more convenient second-line ARV treatment option. Patients will take three pills once-a-day instead of five or more pills twice-a-day (that is, at least two in the morning and at least three in the evening) as required by alternative regimens.

Additionally, the products will include the first-ever heat-stable version of Ritonavir that does not require continuous refrigeration for its transport and distribution - an advantage in poor countries.

At the end of 2008, there were 2-2.5 lakh second-line patients across the developing world. This number is expected to double over the next three years.

Taken from Business Line

thehindubusinessline.in