New HIV drugs are "priced beyond reach," warns MSF, but generics helping the situation

International medical humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres has today (July 2) warned that new antiretrovirals (ARVs) to treat HIV continue to be priced “astronomically high” while the price of first- and second-line ARVs are falling because of increased competition among generic producers.

MSF’s annual report Untangling the Web of ARV Price Reductions, released at the International AIDS Society conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, says that the “best possible” price of a World Health Organization-recommended one-pill-a-day first-line combination (tenofovir/lamivudine/efavirenz) has fallen 19% since last year (from $172 to $139 per person per year), with some countries able to achieve even lower prices in large volume orders. And, as new generic competitors have emerged, the prices of two key medicines used in second-line treatment - atazanavir/ritonavir and lopinavir/ritonavir - have each fallen by 28% over the last year, with the most affordable second-line combination (zidovudine/lamivudine + atazanavir/ritonavir) now priced at $303 per year.

MSF says that this represents a 75% drop in the price of second-line treatment since 2006, but adds that today’s lowest second-line price is still more than double the cost of first-line treatment.