If Abbot Laboratories will not cut the price of one of its AIDS drugs, Brazil has said that it will break the company’s patent on the drug and begin manufacturing the drug itself.

Brazil is in talks with Abbot to try to convince the drug maker to cut the price of Kaltera, an anti-retroviral drug, by 42 percent. Abbot’s current price for the drug is $1.17 per pill. Brazil says that a state-owned lab could sell the drug for 68 cents per pill.

Humberto Costa, Brazil’s health minister, said that if his country does break Abbot’s patent on Kaltera, it will do so only because it is in the best interest of the public.

The World Trade Organization permits nations to break patents in this way if certain circumstances of national emergency exist, but critics of Brazil’s intentions say that such conditions do not exist in this case because Brazil is spending less to treat AIDS now than was the case five years ago.

Abbot Laboratories said that if Brazil makes good on its threat, it could have a negative impact on research into and development of new drugs for all diseases. An official of a US drug industry lobby, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, called Brazil’s threat “troubling.”

The Brazilian government is also currently in discussions with Merck and Gilead Sciences, two other US drug manufacturers, concerning the prices of their AIDS drugs, and Mr. Costa said that Brazil is ready to break their patents as well if they will not lower their prices.