Government won't intervene in price of AIDS drug

• Company Abbot Labs Ripping AIDS Patients Off

The government is refusing to intervene in a drastic price increase for an important AIDS drug, despite a provision that might have helped drive the price down. Last year, the price of Norvir was more than quadrupled, from less than $2 a day to about $8.50 a day. Patient groups and some members of Congress have accused drugmaker Abbott Laboratories of price gouging, and they've been pushing the National Institutes of Health to intervene in the matter. A rarely used law would allows intervention, since the initial research that led to Norvir's discovery was financed in part by taxpayers. But on Wednesday, the NIH director said such a such a step could have too broad an effect on the entire pharmaceutical market and is best left to Congress. Abbott Labs has said it needs to make back some of the millions it spent developing the drug and that it remains one of th0 cheaper AIDS drugs on the market. [more] and [more]