Bayer defends decision not ot give away Cipro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of German drugmaker Bayer AG on Friday defended the company’s decision not to give away for free its patented Cipro antibiotic despite the anthrax scare that has shaken the United States.
Other companies have pledged free supplies of antibiotics known or claimed to be useful in treating anthrax but not all of these drugs have been approved by US regulators for that purpose.
“They’re not approved for anthrax,” Bayer President and CEO Helge Wehmeier said on the NBC “Today” program on Friday. “If we were not approved for anthrax we would offer it (Cipro) for free as well.
“The fact is that we have a patent and a patent is something essentially American,” he said. “George Washington issued the first patent. Thomas Jefferson was the first examiner of patents.”
Sixteen cases of anthrax have been confirmed in the United States, all but one known to have been contracted through contaminated mail. Of the total, four people have died from inhalation anthrax, the deadliest kind, since the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Bayer agreed on October 24 to sell up to 300 million tablets of Cipro to the US government at a steep discount for a stockpile to cope with the threat. Cipro is the only drug approved in the United States to treat anthrax after inhalation.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has said the government aims to pool enough anthrax treatments to treat 12 million people over a 60-day period. Many antibiotics are taken twice per day, meaning at least 1.44 billion pills would be needed for the stockpile.
Bayer has agreed to sell the US government its branded product for 95 cents per tablet or the first 100 million tablets, down from its previous price to the government of $1.77 per pill. For the next 100 million pills, the price would drop to 85 cents and for a third 100 million, to 75 cents, Wehmeier said.
Separately, the company has donated an additional 4 million Cipro tablets for those on the anthrax front lines—police officers, firefighters, healthcare workers and postal service employees.
Wehmeier rejected a suggestion that it should have made the drug available for free to cope with the current threat.
“We would have to produce the drug and give it away for the entire free world,” he said, “because…eventually the entire free world—people who share our values—are under equal threat,” he said, citing Britain, France, Germany and other nations.
Last week, a US coalition of consumer groups called the Prescription Access Litigation Project said it was joining a suit against Bayer over deals keeping cheaper generic versions of the antibiotic off the market.
US health officials have said other antibiotics may be just as effective at treating anthrax, and some companies are pushing to have their antibiotics approved by US regulators for inhaled anthrax.
Bayer said on Monday it expects the United States to honor what it called an agreement with the German company to recommend use of its Cipro antibiotic in the early stages of anthrax treatment.
The statement by Bayer spokesman Michael Diehl comes after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said studies support the use of rival drug doxycycline as the drug of choice for anthrax, both for newly identified individuals and for completion of the course in those previously started on Cipro.
Asked whether in his opinion doxycycline could be just as effective as Cipro, Wehmeier said this hinged on the strain of anthrax.