Last Demonstration at Vancouver

["JOHN-HENERY RILEY" <rileyjo@cpmail-nz.cis.columbia.edu>]

  ACT UP indicted Merck for its AIDS profiteering with its protease
  inhibitor Crixivan.
  
  But the last Golden Urn Award went to:
  
  Bayer
  
  for knowingly selling HIV-tainted Blood to Hemphiliacs, murdering
  thousands.
  
  "The worst medically induced tragedy in the history of the U.S."
  
  Bayer Pharmaceuticals murdered thousands of Hemophiliacs when it
  knowingly sold tainted blood products to patients in the U.S., Canada,
  Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, and other
  countries. The company now sells HIV drugs like IVIG and Mycelex
  troche tablets to the very people they infected. According to reports,
  Bayer has also formed a multi-million dollar joint venture with the
  Red Cross to build a blood products factory in Canada.
  
  Bayer is part of a group of blood products companies that are
  currently being sued by hemophiliacs in several countries. Canadian
  hemophiliacs who were infected by tainted blood products were awarded
  approximately $125,000 each as compensation for HIV infection.
  American hemophiliacs are currently considering an offer of
  $60,000-$100,000 per person. 
  
  "These blood products companies are getting away with murder,"
  commented ACT UP Golden Gate's Bill Thorne. "The financial settlements
  these companies are paying People with AIDS are only a fraction of the
  price the patients are paying every year for blood products from the
  same companies that infected them." Other companies known to have sold
  tainted blood products include Alpha Therapeutics, Baxter, and
  Centeon.
  
  "This is the worst medically-induced tragedy in the history of the
  United States," commented Terry Stogdell, an HIV+ hemophiliac. "The
  company also refuses to acknowledge the danger of other blood-born
  viruses. Ninety-eight percent of Hemophiliacs have hepatitis, and most
  have been exposed to arthritis-inducing parvo virus."
  
  Although there were 10,000 US Hemophiliacs infected with HIV in 1985,
  4,000 have died, not including their partners and children. The
  company still sells clotting factor to hemophiliacs. Clotting factor,
  for one person costs between $l - $6 per unit, or as much as $360,000
  per person per year. Due to this fact, most people with Hemophilia are
  living in poverty. Hemophiliacs maintain that Bayer keeps the price
  high by creating artificial shortages. "Bayer has stopped
  manufacturing clotting factor to drive up their prices," commented
  Stogdell. The company is expected to recommence manufacturing in early
  Fall, 1996, once supplies have dwindled.
  
  ACT UP DEMANDS that the Krever commission immediately release the
  names of the people to blame for the tainted blood tragedy that killed
  so many.
  
  
  For more information, please contact: 
  Durhane Wong-Rieger, President Canadian Hemophilia Society
  514-848-0503 x40 Terry Stogdell 415/482-1899
  
  To see photo's of this action and others during the week of the
  International AIDS Conference in Vancouver (July 7-11) go the ACT
  UP/NY's web site at : www.actupny.org.
  
  ACT UP will continue its campaign against exorbitant drug prices in
  Washington DC at the weekend of October 11-13th. We intend to hold
  congress, the president and drug companies liable for the crisis high
  prices have created for people suffering from life threatening
  conditions such as AIDS.