When both parties to a negotiation declare victory, it often seems too good to be true-and in the case of a recent deal on AIDS drug prices between the Brazilian government and Abbott Laboratories, an American pharmaceutical firm, it was. On July 8th, the two sides announced an end to a stand-off over the cost of Kaletra, Abbott's anti-retroviral treatment. The drug accounts for nearly one-third of Brazil's budget for AIDS medications, which it provides free to HIV-posi-tive citizens. The government had asked Abbott to cut Kaletra's price by 42% or grant a licence for the state to produce it. If not, Brazil threatened, it would disregard Abbott's patent and use a compulsory licensing procedure sanctioned by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to manufacture the pills without the firm's permission.
展开▼
