In the fall of 2003, Abbott Laboratories...seized on an unusual weapon that helped [its AIDS drug] Kaletra's global sales top $1 billion a year, even as it exposed Abbott to criticism that it was endangering patients. The weapon was an older Abbott AIDS drug called Norvir. It is a key part of drug regimens that include rival companies' pills. Previously undisclosed documents and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show how Abbott executives discussed ways to diminish the attraction of Norvir, with the goal of forcing patients to drop the rival drugs and turn to Kaletra...The executives expected a Norvir price hike would help Kaletra sales...[Initial criticisms] that the price hike made it harder for patients who needed drug combinations pairing Norvir with non-Abbott pills to get their medicine...[did fade], partly because Abbott exempted government health plans and AIDS drug-assistance programs from the Norvir price increase... An Abbott spokeswoman, Melissa Brotz, says...the price increase was intended to better reflect Norvir's medical value after years of being underestimated..."Our intention was that no patient be denied access to Norvir," she says.