GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) patent for AZT (Retrovir� or zidovudine), the very first AIDS drug, ends today, seventeen years after it was first patented for use against HIV/AIDS. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation however urges the British drug giant, which controls more than 40% of the US market for HIV/AIDS drugs, to do more in the worldwide fight against AIDS. Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, says:

"While we are happy to see the end of GSK's patent protection for AZT, this development comes as too little, too late, particularly for a drug that GSK didn't even invent. When AZT was first introduced as an AIDS drug - and, at the time, was the only available treatment - people died because they could not afford the ten thousand dollar price tag. This astronomical price set the precedent for the pricing of virtually all AIDS drugs that followed. Untold millions have died here and abroad in the nearly two decades AZT has been under patent, making this a solemn day and shameful reminder that the unbridled quest for greater and greater profits has had a cost that can be measured in human suffering."

It does seem to be a string of bad luck for GlaxoSmithKline. GlaxoSmithKline has suffered a setback an has terminated the Phase IIb trials for a new AIDS pill, following two cases of serious liver problems in patients taking its experimental drug. Aplaviroc, or GSK 873140, belongs to a new class of oral medicines called CCR5 inhibitors that can block the AIDS virus before it enters human cells. A report form Dow Jones quotes an analyst who says, "It's not good, but not a disaster...the drug is worth less than 10p per share."

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