Five pharmaceutical firms will offer discounts averaging 37 percent on AIDS drugs sold to the Brazilian government, avoiding the possibility the country would issue compulsory licenses for the drugs. "These are tough, but satisfying, negotiations," Health Minister Humberto Costa said Thursday. "They will save us the equivalent of 229 million reals (US$106 million) this year." The drugs -- nelfinavir, lopinavir, efavirenz, tenofovir and atazanavir -- are manufactured, respectively, by Roche Diagnostics, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Merck Sharp & Dohme, Gilead Sciences and Bristol-Myers Squibb. "Because of this outcome, the government has decided not to order compulsory licensing for any of the drugs in question," said Costa -- a power the Health Ministry held under a 2003 government order "in cases of national emergency or national interest." Costa said Brazil would spend more than 500 million reals (US$177 million) this year in its free AIDS drugs distribution program, which serves 128,000 patients.

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