[Ip-health] Quick update: status of HIV/AIDS drug patents at the U of Minnesota. (fwd)

[Asia Russell]

From University of Minnesota AIDS treatment activist Adam Sitze,
Minnesota AIDS Action Coalition. 

> _Glaxo: price cut on abacavir-based HIV/AIDS drugs_.
> 
> On June 11, 2001, GlaxoSmithKline announced that it would offer "preferential" 
> pricing on its "newer HIV/AIDS medicines," including those made from the 
> compound abacavir.[1]
> 
> (Abacavir is the compound for which the University of Minnesota holds the 
> patents.[2])
> 
> In a carefully-worded press release, the company implied (but did not explicitly
> state) that "preferential pricing" means that these drugs will be "available at 
> up to a 90% discount from the world average price."[3]
> 
> _Evaluation of announcement_.
> 
> On the one hand, this is good news, since at the very outset of student 
> organizing at the University of Minnesota (March 2001), Glaxo declared that it 
> would offer "no more cuts in AIDS drug prices."[4]
> 
> Though Glaxo has not said so explicitly, one cannot help but wonder whether a 
> combination of student & NGO activism and critical, informed global public 
> attention did not, in fact, force them to change their mind.
> 
> On the other hand, this announcement should be treated with a healthy dose of 
> skepticism.
> 
> To begin, multinational pharmaceuticals have made empty promises before.  
> Students at Yale University are organizing right now in order to force 
> Bristol-Myers Squibb to live up to similar promises it made - but hasn't yet 
> acted upon - in the Spring.  It's not for nothing, after all, that Big Pharma 
> spends millions on advertising: good public relations is the name of the game, 
> when the game in question is monopoly capitalism.
> 
> Moreover, not only is Glaxo's press release (and its accompanying report, 
> entitled "Facing the Challenge") ambiguous in the extreme, but their offer for 
> "preferential pricing" is so laden with conditions that one wonders who, 
> exactly, could actually qualify for said pricing.  It remains to be seen, in 
> other words, whether Glaxo's new programs will actually get the drugs to the 
> people who need them.
> 
> Finally, to the extent that Glaxo continues to sell abacavir-based medications 
> at a profit (however small), they are unnecessarily draining the already-tiny 
> HIV/AIDS "war chest" (remember that?).  If Glaxo did *not* have a monopoly on 
> the sales of such medication, on the other hand, they would be forced to lower 
> their price even more, which would ultimately make more drugs available 
> to more people with HIV/AIDS.  In short, even and especially after the creation 
> of the global fund, the productions of generics is still the best option.  The 
> goals that the Minnesota AIDS Action Coalition set for the U of M and Glaxo on 
> May 1 - and that neither Glaxo nor the U of M have fulfilled - are still worth 
> struggling for.[5]
> 
> _Where next?_
> 
> Organizers from the Minnesota AIDS Action Coalition will meet this week with 
> representatives of the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches (MNCC) to discuss
> the possibility of the MNCC's Social Action Committee taking on the abacavir 
> issue.  If MNCC decides to do so, it has announced that it will work on the 
> issue in conjunction with the Minnesota National Baptist Convention.  Put 
> succinctly, U of M students who wish to see this issue through to its end will 
> have powerful allies in the Twin Cities faith community.  Stay tuned, and stay 
> organized.
> 
> -------
> 
> _Notes_.
> 
> [1] "Those medicines are: Ziagen (abacavir) a nucleoside analogue; Trizivir,
> the first medicine to combine three nucleoside analogues in one tablet
> (Ziagen, Epivir and Retrovir) and Agenerase (amprenavir), a protease
> inhibitor."  Click on "June 11, 2001" at http://corp.gsk.com/media/archive.htm
> [2] For a detailed history of abacavir at the U of M, see  
> http://www.citypages.com/databank/22/1074/article9665.asp?page=1
> [3] Click on "June 11, 2001" at http://corp.gsk.com/media/archive.htm
> [4] See http://www.aegis.com/news/upi/2001/UP010313.html
> [5] For those goals, see http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/aids/umabc.html

________________
Asia Russell
Health GAP Coalition
ACT UP Philadelphia
+1 215 731-1844
+1 215 985-4492 fax
asia@critpath.org
+1 267 475-2645 cell