The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is stepping up an ad campaign against the drugmaker over the price of Kaletra, claiming Abbott charges Mexico five times more than other middle-income countries. The example cited - $5,400 a year in Mexico compared with $1,000 per year in Brazil for the second-line AIDS treatment. The ads are running in newspapers in Illinois, where Abbott is headquartered.

“Abbott is once again living up to its terrible record on AIDS by abusing NAFTA’s patent protections to charge five times as much for Kaletra in Mexico as it does in other middle-income countries, a heartless business calculation that effectively makes this drug all but out of reach for nearly all those living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico,” Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s president, in a statement, who accused the drugmaker of price gouging. We await a reply from Abbott.

Abbott has previously drawn the wrath of AIDS activists over its decision to withhold a new version of Kaletra from Thailand, which issued a compulsory license allowing lower-cost generics. The drugmaker subsequently relented by allowing a new pediatric version into the country. And last month, an international coalition of patient and public health advocacy groups asked the Colombian government to issue a license, citing the price of Kaletra.

AHF, which operates three free treatment clinics in Mexico, frequently attacks drugmakers over their pricing and advertisements. In July, for instance, AHF sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services complaining that Glaxo’s ads for an HIV drug was a scare tactic. Earlier this year, AHF ran ads criticizing Merck for the price of its AIDS drug.