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HIV Medications - AIDS Medications - AIDS Prescription Drugs

Low Cost HIV/AIDS Discount Prices on HIV/AIDS Medications

Save up to 80% with low cost discount prices on
International HIV/AIDS Prescription Drugs

HIV left untreated becomes AIDS. AIDS is 100% fatal, However, life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs have begun to transform HIV from an inescapable death sentence into a manageable condition for those, primarily living in developed countries who are able to purchase them.  We help people with HIV/AIDS to "confidentially" get more affordable medications from proven international medication sources.  Call now for more information (888) 380-6337.

HIV/AIDS Medication Price List
Prices Updated (3/28/08)

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Low Cost International (Canada) AIDS Medications Discount Prices

Epivir

Epivir...Epivir is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Epivir prevents HIV from altering the genetic material of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body.  Epivir, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved for the treatment of HIV by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1995.  Epivir is also approved for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection (Epivir HBV). The Epivir dose normally used to treat hepatitis B is one 100mg tablet once a day. The dose used to treat HIV is one 300mg tablet once a day, or one 150mg tablet every 12 hours. If you are infected with both HIV and hepatitis B, it is important that you take the dose used to treat HIV.   Epivir must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Epivir.htm

Combivir

Combivir...Combivir is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medicines called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors  (NRITs). Combivir prevents HIV from altering the genetic material of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body. Combivir is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use by people living with HIV in 1997.     Combivir is a combination of two drugs: 300mg of Retrovir® (AZT) and 150mg of Epivir® (3TC). Combivir should be prescribed by a healthcare provider for patients who need both of these drugs. Both of these drugs can still be purchased individually for use in combination with other anti-HIV drugs.  Combivir must be combined with at least one other anti-HIV drug.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Combivir.htm

Crixivan

Crixivan...Crixivan is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called protease inhibitors (PIs). Crixivan prevents T-cells that have been infected with HIV from producing new HIV.  Crixivan, manufactured by Merck & Company, was approved for the treatment of HIV by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996.  Crixivan must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Crixivan.htm

Fortovase

Fortovase...Fortovase is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called protease inhibitors (PIs). Fortovase prevents T-cells that have been infected with HIV from producing new HIV.  Fortovase is manufactured by Hoffmann-La Roche. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it for the treatment of HIV infection in 1997.   Fortovase is a newer version of saquinavir, the generic name for this protease inhibitor. The first version of saquinavir, Invirase®, was approved in 1995.  Hoffmann-La Roche will be stopping production of Fortovase in 2006. Invirase will be the only form of saquinavir available after this time. This is because the 500mg capsules of Invirase, combined with ritonavir, are better tolerated than the current Fortovase capsules (combined with ritonavir). For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Fortovase.htm

Invirase

Invirase...Invirase is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called protease inhibitors (PIs). Invirase prevents T-cells that have been infected with HIV from producing new HIV.  Invirase is manufactured by Hoffmann-La Roche. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it for the treatment of HIV infection in 1995.   Invirase should be taken with low doses of Norvir® (ritonavir), another protease inhibitor that boosts Invirase levels in the body (Invirase suffers from absorption problems, meaning that only a small amount of the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream from the gut). Invirase (1,000mg twice daily) combined with Norvir (100mg twice daily) was approved by the FDA in December 2003 for this purpose. As an alternative, people can take Fortovase either with or without low-dose Norvir. Invirase, combined with Norvir, is just as effective as Fortovase combined with Norvir.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Invirase.htm

Retrovir

Retrovir...Retrovir is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Retrovir prevents HIV from altering the genetic material of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body.  Retrovir, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, was the first drug approved for the treatment of HIV, in 1987.  Retrovir must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Retrovir.htm

Sustiva

Sustiva...Sustiva is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medicines called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Sustiva prevents HIV from entering the nucleus of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body.  Sustiva was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of HIV in 1998. It was originally produced by DuPont Pharmaceuticals and is now manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb for sale in the United States. In Europe and many other parts of the world, Sustiva has a different brand name: Stocrin®. Stocrin is manufactured by by Merck Sharp and Dohme. Stocrin and Sustiva are the same drug.   Sustiva must be used in combination with other drugs to treat HIV. It is usually combined with two nucleoside analogues.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Sustiva.htm

Videx

Videx...Videx and Videx EC are anti-HIV medications. They are in a category of HIV medications called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). NRTIs prevent HIV from altering the genetic material of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body.  Videx, manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb, was the second drug approved for the treatment of HIV, and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1989.  A generic version of didanosine, manufactured by Barr Laboratories, is now available. It was approved by the FDA in December 2004.  This lesson reviews both Videx buffered tablets, which can be taken once or twice a day, and Videx EC, a capsule that only needs to be taken once a day. They are the same drug, but come in different forms and are taken differently. Because Videx EC is considered to be easier to take and does not contain an antacid buffer (which can cause stomach upsets and prevents many other medications from being taken at the same time as Videx tablets and powder), most HIV-positive adults are now taking Videx EC.  Videx or Videx EC must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Videx.htm

Viracept

Viracept...Viracept is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called protease inhibitors (PIs). Viracept prevents T-cells that have been infected with HIV from producing new HIV.  Viracept is manufactured by Agouron Pharmaceuticals, a division of Pfizer Inc. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it for the treatment of HIV infection in 1997.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Viracept.htm

Viramune

Viramune...Viramune is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medicines called non-nucleoside reverse trancriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Viramune prevents HIV from entering the nucleus of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body.  Viramune, manufactured by Boehringer-Ingelheim, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of HIV in 1996.  Viramune must be used in combination with other drugs to treat HIV. It is usually combined with two nucleoside analogues.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Viramune.htm

Zerit

Zerit...Zerit is an anti-HIV medication. It is in a category of HIV medications called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTIs). Zerit prevents HIV from altering the genetic material of healthy T-cells. This prevents the cells from producing new virus and decreases the amount of virus in the body.  Zerit, manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of HIV in 1994.  Zerit must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs.  For more information see http://www.aidsmeds.com/drugs/Zerit.htm

Medication Program Yearly Enrollment $15
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HIV has imperiled the very fabric of human society as no disease in human history has before. By 2010, it is estimated that deaths from the pandemic will rival those of the bubonic plague, which killed 93 million people. The numbers may be staggering, but we cannot afford to let them become numbing. Evidence of successes in lowering the incidence of infection in countries such as Thailand and Uganda indicate that curbing the HIV/AIDS pandemic is not hopeless.  A unified and global commitment to turning the tide on this disease is needed and is building. This effort will require effective use of sufficient resources devoted to research, prevention, care and treatment for those infected with and affected by the disease.

By the end of 2003, there were 37.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS, including 17 million women and 2.1 million children under the age of 15.  4.8 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2003, including 630,000 children. In 2003 alone, a total of 2.9 million people died of HIV/AIDS-related causes.  UNAIDS predicts that an additional 45 million people will become infected with HIV in 126 low-and middle-income countries by 2010, unless the world succeeds in mounting a drastically expanded, global prevention effort.

By the end of 2003, women accounted for nearly half of all people living with AIDS worldwide, and represent almost 60% of infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, young women are several times more likely than young men to contract the disease through heterosexual contact. Worldwide, 62% of infected young people are girls, and that number soars to 75% in sub-Saharan Africa. A woman’s vulnerability to the virus is attributable not only to biological differences, but also to deeply entrenched socio-economic inequalities that further compound her risk.

Because 70% of the world’s poor are women, women have fewer economic options. They are far more vulnerable to engaging in transactional sex to pay for food, school fees and other necessities. They are also vulnerable to coercive or forced sex and often unable to negotiate condom use.

Many women, particularly married women, cannot control the circumstances under which sex takes place. Women are especially unable to negotiate sex or condom use with a husband who may have extramarital partners. Some research indicates that married women are in fact more at risk for HIV than unmarried women because they are more frequently exposed to intercourse within marriage.

HIV-positive women may transmit HIV to their children during pregnancy, in childbirth or through breastfeeding. Today, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is the primary mode of acquisition of HIV for the more than 2 million children living with HIV. While antiretroviral therapy significantly reduces the risk of MTCT of HIV, only 1% of women in need currently have access to this preventive therapy.

As AIDS ravages families and communities, the burden of caring for ill family members rests mainly with women and girls — many of whom may be seriously ill themselves. A woman affected by HIV/AIDS is plunged further into poverty, losing the ability to provide for herself and her children. Combined with pervasive social stigma and the collapse of traditional family and support structures, HIV/AIDS is eroding the status of women in many countries.

Copied as fair use.

Los Angeles Times
03/25/2001
 

AIDS Drug Pricing Controversy Opens Door to Wider Debate Pharmaceuticals:
As firms are pressured to cut prices in poor African nations, activists push to lower costs to other nations and for other drugs.

DENISE GELLENE, TIMES STAFF WRITER

The battle over the price of AIDS medications in Africa is focusing new attention on pharmaceutical companies' pricing practices for many drugs in the U.S. and around the world. AIDS activists have shifted their campaign for cheaper drugs beyond the impoverished sub-Saharan Africa nations ravaged by the disease. Adopting the slogan "Medication for every nation," they want prices lowered in Asian and South American countries where the cost of treatments for AIDS exceeds the ability of many people to pay.

In the United States, where price relief for seniors is an intense political issue, activists view developments in Africa as evidence that prices of many medications are often irrational and arbitrary.

"What we're seeing is that there is a lot of discretion in the way drugs are priced and there is a capacity for gouging that needs to be looked at," said Tim Fuller, executive director of the Gray Panthers, a lobby for seniors. A broader debate about drug pricing is exactly what pharmaceutical companies feared last May when they started ratcheting down the cost of AIDS medications in South Africa, which said last week nearly 25% of adults now carry the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

The companies maintain that they must charge high prices for new drugs in affluent nations to finance discovery and development of pharmaceuticals, which can cost as much as $500 million each to bring to market.

Those claims have invited financial scrutiny of pharmaceutical firms, which, according to a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, have a higher rate of return than any other industry. Add to that a recent Congressional Budget Office report that cited skyrocketing advertising expenditures as a contributor to higher drug prices, which are accelerating by 12.6% annually. Recent price cuts in Africa resulted from intense business and political pressures on an industry that has long resisted taking so dramatic a step.

The immediate catalyst was last month's offer from Indian generic-drug maker Cipla to provide South Africa eight HIV drugs at rock-bottom prices. About the same time, South Africans protested a lawsuit filed by 39 pharmaceutical companies to prevent the country from buying cheap knockoffs of drugs still under patent protection.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said March 14 that it would sell two HIV drugs in Africa below cost and would not enforce the patent on one, Zerit, against generic competition. A week earlier, Merck & Co. said it would sell two drugs used to treat HIV, Crixivan and Stocrin, at cost in South Africa and more than two dozen other developing countries.

The new pricing makes sub-Saharan Africa less attractive to generic producers, which would no longer enjoy a big price advantage over brand-name-drug makers. The effect of the price cuts on drug company profits is minimal, because poor nations haven't been big consumers of expensive AIDS drugs. Worldwide, AIDS medications account for only 2.5% of pharmaceutical sales.

The cuts also were important in terms of public relations.

"They did exactly the right thing," said David Galas, chief academic officer at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont and an expert on patent issues. "It was costing them too much in terms of their public image."

Assessing the price cuts from a public health perspective is harder, Galas said. "It is impossible to say what impact they will have on the AIDS problem."

Activists and the companies agree that substantial foreign aid is needed to help poor nations pay for the drugs, which are beyond the reach of many Africans even at reduced prices. An "AIDS cocktail" of Merck's Crixivan and Bristol-Myers' Zerit and Videx would cost $900 annually. In 1999, per capita income in Uganda was $1,060 and in South Africa $6,900, according to U.S. government data.

Africa's AIDS problem isn't simply a matter of money. Its developing nations lack the medical infrastructure to distribute drugs and monitor patients, who must consume as many as 30 pills daily. Doctors must regularly check for side effects that can include pain and liver damage and measure the level of virus and T-helper white blood cells in a patient's system for signs the drugs are working. Studies have shown that even in the developed world, patients have difficulty sticking to AIDS drug regimes. In a study in Britain, one in four people taking anti-retrovirals did not take them as prescribed.

Pharmaceutical firms are reluctant to deal with nations with weak infrastructure for broad medical and economic reasons. Patients who take medications irregularly increase the odds that the AIDS virus will mutate to a drug-resistant strain, said Joel Hay, a pharmaceutical economist at USC. And there is the risk that AIDS medications will not reach patients in Africa but will be diverted to affluent nations, hurting high-margin sales. "It is a real dilemma," Hay said. "In poor countries, it is very hard to police where the drugs end up."

Activists are refusing to allow the debate to focus solely on infrastructure. Health Gap, a coalition of AIDS patient advocacy groups based in Philadelphia, is lobbying Bristol-Myers to extend its offer to all developing countries and to Mexico. But Bristol-Myers said it targeted Africa because that is where 70% of the world's HIV-positive people live, and it has no plans to expand the offer. The company said it is negotiating sales with authorities in Ukraine, Barbados and some Central American nations at prices 90% lower than in the United States, a spokesman said.

In the United States, the price of AIDS drugs is not an issue. The federal Ryan White Care Act, inspired by a boy who died of complications of AIDS contracted from a blood transfusion, provides money for patients who cannot afford antiretrovirals, which can cost $10,000 to $15,000 a year. But the government does not cover other drugs. Rising drug costs for seniors have become a political lightening rod, as lawmakers debate ways to help them pay medical bills. The Gray Panthers and other advocacy groups have accused big pharmaceutical firms of using loopholes in patent law to block low-cost generics, tactics the firms deny. Bristol-Myers is involved in lawsuits over patent extensions on its breast-cancer drug, Taxol, and its anxiety medication, BuSpar.

The drug industry's concessions in Africa are whetting demands for reform. "Good public policy is not made on one disease alone," AIDS activist James Love of the Washington-based Consumer Project on Technology said in an Internet discussion group. "I don't think it is useful for any one illness advocate group to cut a separate deal for a handful of drugs and declare victory in terms of public health."

Congress has taken small steps that would chip away at the pharmaceutical industry's pricing structure. Proposed legislation would allow wholesalers to import cheaper drugs from other countries, though there is no guarantee intermediaries would pass on savings to consumers.  The industry contends such rule changes would undermine its ability to offer bargain-priced medications to the world's needy.

"To offer these prices [in Africa], we have to be assured that we can retain our pricing structure in the West. We have to have a return on our investment that we can reinvest in discovery of new medicines," said Nancy Pekarek, spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Combivir, a combination of AZT and 3TC that is typically administered with a third HIV drug. It sells in Africa at $730 for a year's worth compared with $6,200 in the United States.

The alternative to tiered pricing is a single world price that would put vital medications beyond the reach of poor nations, said USC's Hay.

"Corporations have a responsibility to make a profit, and if they are forced to charge the same price everywhere they will abandon poor countries completely," Hay said. "No one gets upset when people pay different prices for different classes on an airplane. Why should it be different for medical care?"

The price cuts in Africa didn't come about suddenly. The Clinton administration, under pressure from AIDS activists as Al Gore's presidential campaign got underway, reversed its policy of enforcing trade sanctions against developing countries that ignored patent laws to import low-cost generic drugs. Having lost important political support, the industry last May announced the first in a series of price cuts on much-needed HIVAIDS medications. Besides American firms Merck and Bristol-Myers, Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffmann-LaRoche of Switzerland and the German firm Boehringer Ingelheim joined in the cuts.

But negotiations with African nations moved slowly, and only Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda have agreements. Earlier this year, the Bush administration said it would continue former President Clinton's policy, dashing any hope the industry had of change. That, combined with offers from Indian generic-drug companies, set the stage for deeper price cuts.

The cuts haven't eased the political pressure on pharmaceutical firms in South Africa. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling on them to drop a suit challenging South Africa's right to obtain low-cost generics. The suit has delayed implementation of a 1997 law that allows the country to import generics without permission of the patent holders. It also allows the government to license local companies to produce cheaper versions of patented drugs.

Pharmaceutical firms said they must fight the law because it would permit generic competition for all drugs, not just AIDS medications. The trial is set for mid-April.

Strides to offer low-cost AIDS drugs
Bloomberg News
Posted online: Friday, January 13, 2006 at 1343 hours IST

The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative in 2003 reached an agreement with five generic drug makers, New Delhi-based Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., Mumbai-based Cipla Ltd., Matrix Laboratories Ltd. of Secunderabad, India, Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs Ltd. and Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. of Sandton, South Africa, to cut the price of AIDS drugs by as much as half for countries in Africa and the Caribbean.  The program seeks to make HIV/AIDS treatment more accessible and affordable to nations ravaged by the disease such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 30 million of the 42 million people worldwide with HIV live, according to the United Nations.

Medication Program Yearly Enrollment $15
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Discount HIV/AIDS Prescription Drugs, Affordable HIV/AIDS Prescription Drugs, HIV/AIDS Prescription Drugs Discounts, Low Cost HIV/AIDS Prescription Drugs now available in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Indiana, Washington Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin, Maryland, Arizona, Minnesota, Louisiana, Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, District of Columbia, Wyoming, Puerto Rico

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Last modified: July 28, 2007