Firm Seeks License For Pfizer, Abbott Drugs

A nonprofit company will ask the U.S. government on Thursday to grant licenses for production of cheaper, generic versions of an AIDS drug and a blockbuster glaucoma medicine that are still protected by patents. Washington-based Essential Inventions Inc. said the drugs, Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s AIDS medicine Norvir and Pfizer Inc.'s glaucoma treatment Xalatan, were developed with support from taxpayer funds and now are being sold at unreasonable prices.