Gout used to be called the 'rich man's disease' because it occurs mostly when people eat an excess of animal protein [meat] and produce excessive amounts of uric acid which the kidneys are unable to clear. The standard treatment - aside from reducing animal protein consumption - is allopurinol.

BTW, there are several classes of meds/drugs that can reduce/interfere with the kidneys' ability to filter out protein and thus cause secondary gout, so your friend should check his meds' side effect profile.

Here are some reference articles:

MEDLINEplus Drug Information Allopurinol (Systemic) [url="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202021.html"]http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202021.html[/url]

MEDLINEplus Gout and Pseudogout: [url="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/goutandpseudogout.html"]http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/goutandpseudogout.html[/url]