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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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102389
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10238900.007
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1990-09-22
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BUSINESS, Page 71Business NotesAIDSA Painful Price Tag
The controversy over the high price of AIDS drugs is not
limited to AZT, the antiviral medication that can cost patients as
much as $550 a month. AIDS activists are assailing the high price
of pentamidine, a medication that helps prevent a deadly form of
pneumonia among people infected with the AIDS virus. The drug's
manufacturer, Lyphomed of Rosemont, Ill., holds the exclusive
license for pentamidine (brand name: NebuPent) in the U.S., where
the drug retails for $110 to $200 for a month's supply.
Lyphomed defends its pentamidine price by citing high
research-and-development costs. The firm announced last June that
it would make the drug available free of charge to patients who
have no insurance, but the company is still working out details of
the program. Last month the People with AIDS Health Group, based
in New York City, began importing small quantities of pentamidine
from Britain. Reason: a month's supply of the European version,
which is made by the French firm Rhone-Poulenc, costs just $26.