In what could be considered as a vindication of the stand took by the generic AIDS drug manufacturers, nine Latin American Countries (LACs) and Mexico have rejected the bids by drug majors in favour of the "economic" offers that came from generic companies. The development is to bolster Indian interests in the region where companies like Cipla already have made deep inroads in the sale of anti-retroviral drugs.
The meeting of nine Andes nations and Mexico that ended at Lima on June 7, 2003 opted for a "reference price" based on generic competition and made it clear that any company wishing to participate in their tenders should either meet that price or offer a lower price. The 10 LA nations had earlier decided to defer their plans to have "Accelerated" meeting with multinational drug majors and instead invited generic companies to participate in the meeting. The only demand put forth by the countries was the pre-clearance of their plants and products by the WHO. It is known that four generic companies participated in the Lima negotiations.
The decision of the LA countries to invite generic manufacturers has made a mockery of the attempts by pharma majors to opt for a discounted price and thereby keep out the generic companies from LA markets. It should be noted that generic companies were not included in the discussions that took place at the "Accelerated" meeting of Central American Ministers of Health in Panama City in January. The UN initiated "Accelerated Access to Medicines Programme" has the support of WHO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, big Pharma, and the U.S. government. As per the programme, the multinational companies are brought to the discussion table where the prices of drugs are reduced considerably (about 80% in the case of AIDS drugs). However, the LAC found the generic drugs to be still cheaper and hence decided to stick on to its pricing norms based on generic rates.
By deciding to remove all formal and informal barriers that prevent the use of affordable AIDS medicines, the Andean nations and Mexico not only opened the door to competition in Latin America, but possibly throughout the world. It is known that the deal with the generic companies would provide the LACs with the savings (informally estimated at $170,000,000) to treat an additional 150,000 persons.