Merck & Co 'rewrites history' on pricing AIDS drug, Isentress, accuses AHF

The controversy around US drug giant Merck & Co's pricing for its key AIDS drug Isentress (raltegravir) - at nearly $13,000 per patient yearly, the most expensive first line AIDS therapy on the US market today - continued last week following the company's reaction to recent public criticism of its AIDS drug pricing, alleges the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Merck ramped up its damage control PR efforts, issuing a press release that sought to rewrite the history of Isentress and deflect attention by claiming the AHF has been unfairly attacking the firm.

In its press statement dated January 12, Merck officials claimed, "When Isentress was approved, we established its price with the expectation that it would become first-line treatment," said Patrick Bergstedt, senior vice president and general manager, infectious diseases at Merck.

However, when it first introduced the drug to market two years ago, Merck described its expectations and pricing for Isentress as a salvage therapy, meaning treatment for a patient who has not responded to first-line therapy. In an October 25, 2007 response to AHF's 2007 pricing inquiry letter, Margaret McGlynn, president of global vaccines and infectious diseases, stated, 'Isentress provides unique value to patients and caregivers as the first integrase inhibitor, and at a wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of $27 per day, it is priced comparably with ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitors, the most frequently prescribed therapy for treatment experienced HIV patients.' The phrase 'treatment experienced HIV patients' is the term of art describing patients who need salvage therapy,' she added.