Much press attention – and world outrage – has been devoted lately to the inability of poor nations with catastrophic HIV infection rates to get anti-HIV drugs at prices they can afford. The pharmaceutical corporations even filed suit (since dropped) in South Africa, seeking to prevent that highly impacted nation from buying or manufacturing generic versions. They contend that they are entitled to the profits from the medications to which they hold the patents.

No one should be fooled by the charade. Their concern isn’t really the profits from African sales, which would be paltry. Actually, they are terrified that when consumers in the developed world, especially the U.S., find out how much they are being price-gouged, that political pressure will be exerted to control or reduce prices here, as well. And we are their global cash cow.

Now the first crack has appeared in the dam: A patient advocacy group called the Consumer Project on Technology plans to seek permission to manufacture a low-cost generic version of d4T (aka stavudine or Zerit), a frequently prescribed anti-HIV drug. Its patent belongs to Yale University, but it’s licensed to Bristol-Myers Squibb, which sells Zerit for about $10 per day in the U.S. As a nonprofit organization, the Consumer Project plans to charge $1 or less.

When federal funding has paid for a drug’s development, the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act allows the government to require its maker to grant a manufacturing license to another party if the invention is not being made available to the public on “reasonable terms.” The feds have never yet approved such a petition, but they would have to treat an application seriously, given the public’s growing sentiment about drug pricing, and not just for AIDS. Government grants funded most of the cost of discovering and developing Zerit, while B-MS spent perhaps $15 million on clinical trials. Zerit has generated more than $2 billion in revenue. The Consumer Project says this situation qualifies for Bayh-Dole.

Keep your eye on the pea.

This article appears in May 11 • 2001.

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