[Ip-health] Article about Worcester Abbott demo

[Sarah Rimmington]

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070427/NEWS/70427062=
4/1008/NEWS02

Apr 27, 2007

Abbott taken to task for AIDS drug decision

By Richard Nangle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
rnangle@telegram.com


WORCESTER=97 Yesterday was just a warm-up for Jon Ungphakorn, a former
Thailand senator who was in the city to protest against Abbott
Laboratories for withdrawing an important AIDS drug from his country.

Today, Mr. Ungphakorn will attend an Abbott shareholders meeting in
Chicago where he hopes to speak to the effects of that policy on his
former Bangkok constituents, whom he represented from 2000 to 2006.

=93What Abbott has done is not only against Thailand but against the
entire world,=94 said Mr. Ungphakorn. =93It is completely immoral to
withdraw drugs from a country whose government has exercised an entirely
legal act of trying to ensure access to medicines to people living with
AIDS.=94


About 70 activists, mostly students from Clark University and Harvard
University, demonstrated outside Abbott=92s sprawling facility at 100
Research Drive in an attempt to raise awareness about a policy that it
said was condemning countless Thai citizens to death from AIDS. One in
100 adults in Thailand is HIV positive and AIDS is a leading cause of
death there.

The protesters said Abbott was in violation of Thailand law by
withdrawing a planned introduction of its drug Aluvia into the country.

Aluvia is a so-called =93second-line=94 drug that would treat the growing
number of Thai people who have developed a resistance to =93first-line=94
drug therapies.

Abbott spokeswoman Jennifer Smoter said a compulsory license issued by
Thailand to allow generic drugs was unnecessary because Abbott was
offering Aluvia in Thailand at a reduced price of $1,000 per patient per
year. She said generic makers could not compete with that price.

=93Some would like to make this an HIV issue, but the fact is, it is not.
Now the price has been taken off the table, it=92s clear that this
continues to be about licensing (of generics) and potential for its
abuse,=94 she said.

Brook Baker, a Northeastern University law professor and member of
HealthGAP (Health Global Access Project) countered that generic drug
makers in Thailand and India in all likelihood will be able to produce a
generic alternative to Aluvia at far less than $1,000 if given the chance.

=93What Abbott is trying to do is block the possibility of a cheaper
version of a future version of Aluvia,=94 Mr. Baker said.

For many of the student demonstrators, it was not the first time on
Abbott=92s Worcester grounds. The Student Global AIDS Campaign, with a
chapter at Clark, has been targeting Abbott for several years. About 20
of the demonstrators were Clark students, who were outnumbered by
students who made the trip west from Harvard University, the Harvard
School of Public Health, Harvard=92s Kennedy School of Government and
Harvard Medical School.


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--
Sarah Rimmington
Project Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Office: (202) 387-8030 x34
Mobile: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access