Word: merck
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Whether out of sheer benevolence or a desire to end its public relations woes, Bristol-Meyers-Squibb Pharmaceuticals announced last week that it would market its AIDS drugs, Zerit and Videx, to Africa at a combined price of $1 per day. This follows closely on the heels of Merck Pharmaceuticals' announcement that it would market its drug, the protease inhibitor Crixivan, to Africa at the reduced price of $600 per year. AIDS drugs typically cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per year. Needless to say, because of these exorbitantly high prices, these drugs are out of reach for those...
...deadly stalemate seems to be breaking up. Last week, even as the big pharmaceutical companies went to court to keep generic copies of their drugs out of South Africa, one of the biggest of these, Merck, announced it would slash prices of two of its major AIDS drugs, Crixivan and Stocrin, an additional 40% to 55%. Other drug giants--including GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb--immediately signaled they would follow suit...
...meeting this off-brand challenge, the drug companies hope to protect their franchise not only in impoverished Africa but also in the U.S., where drug pricing has long been a target of health activists and where a price war with generics could cut deeply into profit margins. As Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin acknowledges, unless AIDS drugs become more generally available, "our intellectual property is at risk...
Last year one of these highly refined derivatives became the first so-called secretase inhibitor to enter clinical trials with Alzheimer's patients, and others seem sure to follow. In fact, not just Bristol-Myers Squibb but also Amgen, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Merck and SmithKline Beecham are racing to develop similar compounds. The reason? Over the past five years, an explosion of insights into the genetics of Alzheimer's has bolstered confidence that gamma secretase and a related enzyme called beta secretase are not innocent bystanders but rather are intimately involved in the disease process...
...kill a fungus without harming its host? Researchers are pursuing a variety of novel approaches. One Florida-based outfit, the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, is searching for antifungal compounds in a coral-encrusted black sponge found in the Indian Ocean. Merck is expected to get FDA approval this year for a novel class of antifungals derived from Spanish soil...