Brazil: Lower Cost of AIDS Meds or We Break Patent

Brazil’s Ministry of Health has demanded that Abbott Laboratories cut the price of its AIDS drug Kaletra by 42 percent, threatening to break the company’s patent and produce generic versions of the drug if it does not comply.

The Abbott Park, Illinois-based company has 10 days from the time it received Friday’s ruling to agree to reduce Kaletra’s price to $0.68 per pill from $1.17. If Brazil follows through on its threat, the move would mark the first time the country has adopted compulsory licensing.

Under the World Trade Organization’s intellectual property agreement, known as TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), countries have the right to break patents and produce cheap generic versions of necessary medicines in periods of national health emergencies (see India’s Innovators: Copycat No More).