Four big pharmacy chains and one wholesaler filed a lawsuit against Abbott Labs, alleging the drugmaker abused its monopoly in the market for AIDS drugs when it raised the price of one of its products fivefold in 2003, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In the complaint filed yesterday, Safeway, Walgreen, Kroger, Supervalu’s New Albertson’s and American Sales allege that Abbott “unlawfully extended its monopoly position as the sole provider of Norvir,” an AIDS drug used in cocktails with drugs made by other companies, by raising its price 400 percent in December 2003. Norvir’s US wholesale price rose to $257.10 from $51.30 for 30 100-milligram capsules, the paper notes. Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel told the paper the suit is without merit.

Norvir, which received FDA approval in 1996, is in a class of drugs known as protease inhibitors. Side effects prevented it from being used as a stand-alone drug, but it became widely used in small doses to boost the effectiveness of other protease inhibitors. In 2000, Abbott introduced Kaletra, a pill that includes Norvir. Abbott’s decision to quintuple Norvir’s price in the U.S. made Kaletra a cheaper option for American AIDS patients, as it raised the cost of regimens pairing Norvir with rivals’ drugs by several thousand dollars a year.

Abbott has already been sued by two AIDS patients and the Service Employees International Union Health and Welfare Fund in federal court in Oakland, Ca. The suit has class-action status and is scheduled to go to trial in June.

Abbott discussed two alternatives to a Norvir price increase. One was to sell Norvir only as a liquid, which one Abbott executive said tasted like vomit. That would have discouraged use of Norvir with competitors’ drugs, Abbott executives reasoned, the Journal reported earlier this year. Another was to stop selling Norvir altogether. Abbott says it never seriously considered those scenarios. It also says competitors’ drugs have since gained market share.

Source: The Wall Street Journal