WJS on page one, NYT: puts Philly demo crowd at 3,000

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

The front page of today's Wall Street Journal had 
this report:

TEAMING UP: Conservative commentator Arianna Huffington joins AIDS
activists, a Ralph Nader group and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to press Gore
to change his stance against South Africa's easing of patent laws to
allow cheap AIDS drugs. A Gore letter seeking to defuse the issue fails
to quiet critics.

<---------------NYT on Philly Demo------------------->

Today's NYT had a report on the AIDS demostrations
by B. Drummond Ayers, Jr.  It put the Philly 
demo crowd at 3,000, which seems a bit high from
reports I have heard!    Nice to see the estimates
on the high side for once.

The NYT article was full of bad reporting on the 
nature of the dispute.  One one would understand
that the US has trade sanctions againts SA on
compulsory licensing and parallel imports, that
both are legal under trade agreements, etc.  But
it is in the NYT.


    July 2, 1999


POLITICAL BRIEFING

Gore Is Followed by AIDS Protesters
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/political-briefs.html

By B. DRUMMOND AYRES Jr.

     ice President Al Gore has more than enough problems on the
     campaign trail these days, what with the Republican
front-runner,
     George W. Bush, in front of him in the polls and
fund-raising and his only Democratic rival, former Sen. Bill
Bradley of New Jersey, beginning to pick up traction in the rear.
Now add to that the noisy AIDS protesters who have begun showing
up at just about every major campaign stop, more than 3,000 of
them when Gore passed through Philadelphia on Monday.

Their complaint is that Gore, who frequently speaks out on health
issues, is the Clinton administration's point man when it comes
to helping the pharmaceutical industry make big money off of AIDS
drugs. "Gore's greed kills!" they chant when he begins to speak
or starts to work a crowd.

Specifically, the protesters assert that Gore has done nothing to
make it easier for people with AIDS in Africa, most notably those
in hard-hit South Africa, to obtain AIDS drugs developed in the
United States. The protesters say the drugs are so expensive that
most African patients cannot afford them.

They want Gore to take the lead in lowering the cost by
persuading U.S. drug companies to allow African companies with
low manufacturing overhead to make and sell AIDS drugs. They also
want him to persuade U.S. trade officials to drop opposition to
South African trade laws that pressure multinational American
drug manufacturers into making the drugs more available.

Gore, aware that the issue could affect two important Democratic
constituencies, gay and black voters, insists that he is working
hard to find a solution to the problem. Shortly after the
protests began, he arranged for protest leaders to meet with
White House officials who work on AIDS issues. 

But he notes that the problem of drug costs is especially
complicated because patent and trade laws protect U.S. drug
companies, and he points out that the cost of developing new
drugs often accounts for a good part of their high price.

After the Philadelphia demonstration, Gore issued a statement in
which he said he fully supported efforts to make new and cheaper
AIDS drugs available in Africa, so long as the efforts "are done
in a way consistent with international agreements." Protest
leaders welcomed that statement but said the demonstrations would
continue until U.S. policy actually changed.

"We await further movement," said one of the movement's
organizers, Eric Sawyer of New York.



-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org