[Ip-health] Religious Investors Tell Pfizer: Honor the Agreement to Get AIDS Drug Rescriptor to Poor

[Mike Palmedo]

From the Health GAP list...

http://www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/pr_pfizeraidspoor.htm

Religious Investors Tell Pfizer:
Honor the Agreement to Get AIDS Drug Rescriptor to Poor

New York - December 15, 2003 - Faith-based investors today asked pharmaceut=
ical giant Pfizer to reverse its recent announcement that it was pulling ou=
t of a licensing deal for Rescriptor (delavirdine), an AIDS drug Pfizer acq=
uired when it purchased Pharmacia. Pharmacia negotiated the agreement prior=
 to its acquisition by Pfizer.

"This agreement, which used the non-profit International Dispensary Associa=
tion (IDA) to grant licenses for the generic production of Rescriptor (dela=
virdine), was an opportunity for Pfizer to share resources with non-governm=
ental organizations which are struggling to meet the vast needs of HIV/AIDS=
 patients globally," said Sister Barbara Aires of the Sisters of Charity of=
 New Jersey. "Instead of doing so, Pfizer chose the wrong path. As sharehol=
ders and people concerned about the global HIV/AIDS crisis, we are asking t=
hem to reconsider."


In a letter to Pfizer CEO Henry A. McKinnell, Sister Aires and other member=
s of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) wrote: "Inste=
ad of opening the door to a new partnership between the pharmaceutical indu=
stry and global AIDS activists, Pfizer has reneged on an agreement that mar=
ked an important step in the long struggle against AIDS. We are saddened an=
d discouraged that Pfizer has chosen this course."


ICCR members encouraged Pfizer to both return to the original agreement and=
 work with other pharmaceutical companies to develop similar programs for a=
 wide range of medications for HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria. In a January 2003=
 op-ed in the British medical journal Lancelot, drug company representative=
s and academics jointly praised the licensing agreement as "promoting acces=
s to affordable medicines for the world's poor, while reaffirming patents a=
s indispensable for successful pharmaceutical research."


"This agreement was a win-win for shareholders and AIDS patients worldwide,=
" said Catherine Rowan of the Maryknoll Sisters. "Pfizer CEO McKinnell was =
supportive of the licensing concept when it was announced last winter. We'r=
e not sure why Pfizer walked away. But we hope they come back to the table.=
"

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a thirty-year-old coal=
ition of 275 faith-based institutional investors. ICCR announced last week =
that both faith-based and secular institutional investors representing over=
 $33 billion in assets were working together in an HIV/AIDS Caucus to incre=
ase the pressure on America's leading pharmaceutical companies to widen acc=
ess to anti-retroviral AIDS drugs in the developing world.

The members of the HIV/AIDS Caucus have already filed shareholder resolutio=
ns with anti-retroviral drug producers Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, and Abb=
ott Laboratories, as well as Pfizer, Schering-Plough, and Eli Lilly.

CONTACT: Daniel Rosan, Program Director for Public Health
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
212-870-2317