[Ip-health] REMINDER: Sign on to Abbott letter from clinicians and researchers

[Asia Russell]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
**apologies for duplicate postings**

Below is an open letter from clinicians and researchers to Abbott CEO
Miles White, and a list of endorsers so far. This letter will be
delivered ahead of Abbott's Annual General Meeting for shareholders,
in Abbott Park, Illinois on April 27, 2007, in order to convey the
outrage among health care providers and researchers in response to
his decision to retaliate against Thai patients for the lawful
compulsory licenses issued by the Thai government.

Because of pressure on Abbott from from the Thai government's lawful
compulsory license and from advocates around the world, Abbott
announced on April 10 a 55% reduction, to $1000 per patient per year,
of the price of the heat-stable formulation of Kaletra for middle-
income countries. This price is $1200 less than the previous price
Abbott had been offering to these countries.

More pressure on Abbott is still urgently needed: Abbott continues to
hold Thai patients hostage by refusing to reverse their decision to
withdraw the registration of seven new drugs from the Thai market,
including the heat-stable formulation of Kaletra. Please take a
moment to endorse this timely letter today.

To endorse, please send your name, location (city and country) and
affiliation (for identification purposes only) to Asia Russell at:
asia@healthgap.org or call +1 267 475 2645.  The current deadline for
sign on is end of day Tuesday, April 24. Please take a moment to
forward this timely request to contacts in your networks. Thanks in
advance.

Thanks,

Asia Russell

PS: if you are not a clinician or a researcher, visit
www.abbottsgreed.com for ideas about what you can do to be part of
this campaign.
--
Asia Russell
Health GAP (Global Access Project)
email: asia@healthgap.org
tel: +1 267 475-2645
http://www.healthgap.org

-----------------------
OPEN LETTER TO ABBOTT CEO AND CHAIRMAN MILES WHITE

To: Abbott CEO and Chairman Miles White
From: Clinicians and researchers around the world

Miles White
Chairman and CEO
Abbott Laboratories
100 Abbott Park Road
Abbott Park, IL 60064

Dear Miles White,

We, the undersigned, are disappointed and outraged by Abbott=92s
decision to stop marketing new medicines in Thailand and to withdraw
all applications to register medicines in the country.

Abbott has decided to retreat from the Thai market in retaliation to
Thailand=92s lawful decision to issue compulsory licenses for three
medicines, including for two antiretrovirals: efavirenz and lopinavir
+ritonavir (Kaletra). These compulsory licenses will achieve
reductions in costs and will increase access to critically important
medicines in Thailand, something protracted negotiations between the
Thai government and Abbott unfortunately did not achieve.

Abbott=92s decision to deny medicines to Thai patients is an
inappropriate response to the lawful actions of a country addressing
its urgent public health needs in a manner that is completely
consistent with its international obligations according to the World
Trade Organization=92s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and it is also consistent with
Thai national law.

Furthermore, you are clearly attempting to set a precedent and send a
message to other developing countries that they, too, will be
punished in this fashion should they decide to use their lawful right
to issue compulsory licenses to increase access to medicines. This is
unacceptable.

Importantly, your decision identifies you as an outlier among
pharmaceutical companies: at this point in time time we are aware of
no other pharmaceutical company that has ever responded as you have
in reaction to the issuance of compulsory licenses.

If Abbott believed that Thailand=92s actions were not consistent with
their TRIPS commitments then there are legal avenues by which to
contest this. However, by withdrawing registrations for essential
medicines from the Thai market, such as heat-stable lopinavir
+ritonavir--an essential antiretroviral adapted for hot climates and
particularly important for tropical countries like Thailand--Abbott
has chosen instead to hold Thai patients hostage.

As clinicians and researchers from around the world we find this
unacceptable and demand that you reverse your decision immediately.

Sincerely,
<list in formation>

Blanca Baldoceda, MD
PCC Salud Family Health Center
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Joel E. Gallant, MD, MPH
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Mardge Cohen, MD
Director of Women's HIV Research
CORE Center
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD
Partners in Health
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Jim Yong Kim, M.D., Ph.D.,
Director
Fran=E7ois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
Harvard School of Public Health

Andrea C. Ely, M.D., M.Sc.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of General and Geriatric Medicine
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Alice Furumoto-Dawson, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research
Institute for Mind and Biology
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Bernard J. Cordes, M.D., M.P.H.
Faculty of Medicine, Chiangmai University
Chiangmai, Thailand

Andrea C. Ely, M.D., M.Sc.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of General and Geriatric Medicine
Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Joel Lexchin, MD
Emergency Department
University Health Network
Toronto, Canada

David Egilman MD, MPH
Clinical Associate Professor Of Community Medicine
Brown University
Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA

David G Legge
Associate Professor
School of Public Health
La Trobe University
Bundoora, Australia

David Hoos, MD,  MPH
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York, New York, USA

Deborah V. Edidin, M.D
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Glencoe, Illinois, USA

Donna Barry NP MPH
Advocacy and Policy Manager
Partners In Health
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Dr Anil Paranjape
Consultant, Public Health
Mumbai, India

Dr Anna Gilmore
European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
London, UK

Dr Peter Mansfield, GP
Research Fellow, Discipline of General Practice,
University of Adelaide
Australia

Dr. Agnes Vitry
Senior Research Fellow
School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences
University of South Australia
Adelaide, Australia

Stephanie R. Exum, MD
Loyola University Medical Center
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Gregory P. Melcher, M.D.
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Sacramento, CA
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases

Joseph Millum, Ph.D., Fellow
Department of Clinical Bioethics
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Dr Lydia Mungherera
The National Forum of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAFOPHANU), Uganda

Josiah D. Rich, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine and Community Health
Brown University
The Miriam Hospital
Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Elizabeth Salisbury
Rush Medical Student
American Medical Students Association, Physicians for Human Rights
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Joyce C. Lashof, MD
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, USA

Judy Dasovich, MD
Medical Director
The Kitchen Clinic
Springfield, Missouri, USA

Louise Ivers MD, MPH, DTM&H
Director, HIV Equity Initiative, Partners In Health, Haiti
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Marc A. Snyder, MD
Medical Director
St. Luke's Hospital Emergency Department
San Francisco, California, USA

Mark Tyndall BSc MD ScD FRCPC
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Senior Scholar
Associate Professor of Medicine
University of British Columbia
Program Director, Epidemiology
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
Head, Division of Infectious Diseases
St. Paul's Hospital
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Robbin Christensen
Investigational Pharmacist
St Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Kenneth McIntosh, M.D.
Division of Infectious Diseases
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Michael H. Fox, Sc.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Health Policy & Management,
KUMC School of Medicine

Michael Herce MD, MPH
Senior Resident, Internal Medicine & Global Health Equity Program
Brigham & Women's Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Lauren Wilson, M.D.
University of Vermont - Fletcher Allen Hospital
Burlington, Vermont, USA

Michael T. Wong, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Senior Clinical Advisor, Ryan White Title 3 Program
Dimock Community Health Center, Roxbury, MA
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Division of Infectious Diseases
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Michel D. Kazatchkine, MD
D=E9partement d=92Immunologie Clinique
H=F4pital Europ=E9en Georges Pompidou
Paris, France

Patricia Rush, MD
Primary Care Plus
Oak Park, Illinois, USA

Professor D. H. Broom
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health
The Australian National University

Francisco Padilla
CNCD-11.11.11 (Centre national de Coop=E9ration au D=E9veloppement)
Brussels, Belgium

Rainward Bastian, MD
Director, Dif=E4m =96 Gesundheit in der Einen Welt
Difaem - German Institute for Medical Mission
Germany

Robert L. Cohen, MD
Manhattan, New York, USA

Jennifer Cohn, M.D.
Health GAP
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Ramya Srinivasan, MD
San Francisco, California
University of California San Francisco and Children's Hospital
Oakland, California, USA

Roberta J. Lee, RN, MSN, MPH
Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Sara Levin, MD
Staff Physician, Internal Medicine
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center
Martinez, California, USA

Stephen Raffanti MD MPH
Chief Medical Officer
Comprehensive Care Center
Associate Professor of Medicine
Divsion of Infectious Diseases
Vanderbilt University

Sural Shah
Hershey, USA
Medical Student/Clinical Research Fellow Penn State
University College of Medicine American Medical Student Association

Susan Cu-Uvin, M.D.
Professor, Obstetrics-Gynecology and Medicine
Director, The Immunology Center
The Miriam Hospital
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Talal Khan MD
Kansas University Medical Center
Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Sandy Smith-Nonini, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Wah-Yun Low, Ph.D
Health Research Development Unit
Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Sonia Ruiz
PhD Candidate- Health Policy and Management
W.K. Kellogg Health Policy Research Fellow
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Nuria Homedes
Salud y Farmacos
El Paso, Texas, USA

Wayne Sullender, M.D.
University of Alabama Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Susanna Bohme
Global Health through Education Training and Service (GHETS)
Lincoln, Rhode Island, USA

Wendy Armstrong, MD
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Wendy Johnson, MD, MPH
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington, USA

ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS:

African Services Committee, USA
Agua Buena Human Rights Association, Costa Rica
American Medical Students Association (AMSA), USA
AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition, Drug Development Committee, USA
CNCD-11.11.11 (Centre national de Coop=E9ration au D=E9veloppement), Belgiu=
m
Human Rights Working Group on HIV/AIDS and Public Health, Faculty of
Law, McGill University, Canada
Nava Kiran Plus, Nepal