China Denies Plans to Make AIDS Drugs

China's Health Ministry on Monday denied news reports that it is considering producing generic AIDS medications in violation of foreign patents, but said it wants deeper discounts for imported drugs. The government wants to cut the cost of AIDS treatment but will not do so in violation of intellectual property rights, said Qi Xiaoqiu, director general of the ministry's Department of Disease Control.

Qi denied news reports that he had suggested last week that China was considering violating patents if foreign companies did not offer cheaper drugs. "We are strictly adhering to patent law and will continue to do so in the future," he said.

China has begun treating patients with a domestically produced version of AZT, for which patents recently expired. Ten more Chinese firms have applied for permission to make generic versions of AIDS drugs with expired patents, and might be producing them by year's end, Qi said.

Foreign drug makers have agreed to price reductions in China that cut the cost per patient from $16,000 for a year's treatment to about $4,000. However, this is still far more than most Chinese patients can pay, and the government is trying to negotiate further discounts, said Qi. "We are continuing talks with manufacturers over drugs whose periods of patent protection have not expired," he said.

On Friday, Chinese health officials said the nation will have 1 million people infected with HIV by the end of this year.

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