[Ip-health] International sign-on: Abbott: Stop the intimidations! We will not be silenced!

[Wim Vandevelde]

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Dear Friends,

Below please find the text of a sign-on action with the initial
endorsements from leading AIDS organizations in regards to the on-going
intimidations from Abbott against Thailand and ACT-UP Paris.

We need your help! More organizational endorsements will send a clear
message to Abbott. If your organization can lend its support to this
effort by endorsing this sign-on action, please send an e-mail to
petition.abbott@gmail.com with the name and country of your
organization.  This letter is for organisational sign-ons, we are not
collecting the signatures of individuals for the moment. We do encourage
all organisations to sign, even if they are part of a larger coalition
that has already signed.
Thank you for your support!

Wim Vandevelde
EATG
www.eatg.org


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SIGN-ON TEXT:

*ABBOTT: STOP THE INTIMIDATION!  WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!*

*/Global AIDS community expresses solidarity with /**/Thailand/**/ and
ACT UP-Paris and urge Abbott to immediately drop the charges against the
AIDS organization /*

On May 23rd Abbott Laboratories, manufacturers of the anti-retroviral
drugs Norvir and Kaletra, became the first pharmaceutical company to
intentionally attempt to cause the demise of an HIV/AIDS community group
by filing a lawsuit in French criminal court against ACT UP-Paris.
Abbott claims ACT UP-Paris' April website "zap" shut down its server for
a few hours prior to its annual shareholders meeting.

French law forbids the limiting of access to a website, unless a
defendant has a "legitimate motive". Holding Abbott accountable for
unethical business conduct and highlighting Abbott's denial of essential
medicines can surely be interpreted as a legitimate and honorable motive.

A Paris judge has scheduled an Oct. 26 hearing in criminal court.  If
ACT UP Paris loses the criminal case, French law proscribes a maximum
fine of EUR75,000, or $100,000 and/or the disbanding of the AIDS
organization.  Either option will result in the closure of ACT UP-Paris.

*HIV patients, doctors and their organizations have scorned Abbott for
many years as a result of excessive prices charged for its HIV drugs and
for the 400% price increase of its monopoly boosting drug, Norvir, in
the United States.  The company is now divesting from HIV research and
remains only interested in maximizing returns from its existing HIV
products.*

In recent months, the company has been embroiled in a standoff over
access to its drug Kaletra in Thailand. ACT UP-Paris was among the many
AIDS activist groups globally that joined an International Day of Action
on April 26, 2007, to protest against the company's withdrawal of
applications for new life-saving drugs in Thailand.

Earlier this year, Thailand stated that it could not afford Abbott's
price for Kaletra.  The Thai government announced that it planned to use
compulsory license provisions, pursuant to international trade law, that
allows countries to procure cheaper generic versions of a patented drug
in health emergencies. By utilizing compulsory license provisions, the
Thai government would save millions of dollars that could be used for
life-saving medications for its citizens.

Abbott countered by announcing that it would not register any newly
developed drugs in Thailand, depriving that country of the new form of
Kaletra that, in contrast to the current form, does not require
refrigeration, an obvious issue in tropical Thailand. Despite the fact
that the compulsory licenses for Kaletra were legally issued by the Thai
government in accordance with WTO TRIPS provisions, Abbott announced
that it would refuse access of its new heat-stable version of Kaletra to
the 220.000 HIV patients in Thailand.

The World Health Organization, doctors and community organizations
globally have called upon Abbott to reexamine its position. The French
and British governments publicly supported the Thai government's right
to issue the compulsory drug licenses. People living with HIV/AIDS in
Thailand have pleaded with Abbott to reverse its decision and called
upon the international community to show solidarity with their cause.
ACT UP-Paris responded to their call with the alleged criminal "action".

Phone and fax zaps or sit-ins, which have disrupted corporate
communication for short periods of time, or blocked employee work
access, are not new to AIDS activism. These tactics have been used by
many other activists throughout the many years of the long epidemic to
draw attention to government or corporate acts and omissions.

Such community "actions" in the past have been responded to by
government and industry by initiating direct meetings to discuss options
and solutions to very real problems and concerns. This has lead to
regularly meeting with the community, who represent, and in many
instances who are the actual consumers of the products generated by
industry and government. This process has led to practices that are
mutually beneficial to all stakeholders -- expedited and ethical drug
development and research, resulting in greater profits for industry and
the dramatic extension of life and quality of life of people with HIV/AIDS.

*We believe Abbott's aggressive legal moves are disproportionate and
misguided. We call on Abbott to immediately withdraw its lawsuit, to
meet with ACT UP-Paris and agree to change its current hostile policies
and practices. If Abbott continues to bully ACT UP-Paris and patients
internationally, AIDS organizations will have no choice but to continue
to engage in such "actions" and to inform all stakeholders of the
unethical practices implemented by Abbott Laboratories.*

*The undersigned organizations stand firm in their solidarity with the
Thai HIV community and ACT UP-Paris. We welcome this opportunity to
debate Abbott's shameful policies in **Thailand** and elsewhere.
**Regardless of Abbott's decision on the case against ACT UP-Paris, we
will not be intimidated and we will continue to do everything in our
power to convince the company to reverse its **unprecedented **decisions
to stifle freedom of speech and deprive the Thai people of life-saving
med**i**cations.***

/AIDES, France//
AIDS ACCESS //Foundation//, //Thailand//
AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC), //USA//
Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), //USA/
/European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), //Belgium/
///European Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (ENP+), The
//Netherlands///

/Global AIDS //Alliance//, //USA////
Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), The //Netherlands////
Health GAP (Global Access Project), //USA////
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW)////
SIDACTION, France////
Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+), //Thailand
/

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