Patent Peace

Brazil and Abbott Laboratories have averted a patent showdown by announcing that they have agreed on pricing for a key AIDS drug.

Beginning next March, the Illinois-based drug company will make the protease inhibitor Kaletra (lopinavir and ritonavir) available to the Brazilian government for 63 US cents a pill, rather than the current price of $1.17.

In June, Brazil's health ministry threatened to break Abbott's patent — which doesn't expire until 2015 — and begin producing a generic version of the drug if the company didn't lower its price. Kaletra is a staple in Brazil's renowned, publicly funded AIDS programme, which distributes free drugs to roughly 160,000 patients.

Going offshore

Industrial research and development is rapidly going global, according to a survey by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The survey says that 16% of industrial research is now performed by overseas affiliates; the concentration of such ‘offshore’ research is highest in Ireland and Hungary, and lowest in Japan.

The economic think-tank says that of the largest economies Britain has the most internationalized industrial-research system by three separate criteria. China has become the third-largest research nation in the world, and surpassed Japan as the country with the second-largest research workforce.

Cancer cash

California biotechnology company Genentech cruised to a record-breaking third quarter on booming sales of anticancer drugs. Its net income increased by 56% from the third quarter in 2004, and for the first time, US sales of the company's cancer drugs exceeded $1 billion.

The strong growth was led by US sales of Avastin (bevacizumab), a colon-cancer drug that starves cells of their blood supply. US sales of Avastin grew by four-fifths, to $325 million, compared with the same time period in 2004. Sales of Herceptin (trastuzumab), a genetically targeted breast-cancer drug, grew by 70% to $215 million.