Pantin,
France,
July 1st, 2007 People Living with HIV: Let's change the rules imposed by the pharmaceutical industry!
AIDES calls upon all People living with HIV who can to ask their doctor to prescribe them treatments that are not those produced by Abbott, if their health condition allows it. AIDES also call upon medical practitioners to prescribe treatments that are not those produced by Abbott, to stop participating to conferences organised by Abbott, and to no longer accept visits from Abbott representatives.
This assertive call was just made by AIDES General Director Vincent Pelletier in his opening speech at the AIDS Impact international conference on human, economic and social sciences in relation to HIV, in Marseille, France.
This call is aimed against the decision taken by the company Abbott to no longer market its new medicines in Thailande, including the pill version of Kaletra, a second-line antiretroviral treatment. This decision by Abbott followed the announcement by the government of Thailand that it would issue mandatory licenses, including for treatments that are now part of Abbott monopoly. Mandatory licenses allow governments to produce or to import generic copies of medicines that are of equivalent quality but less expensive. The World Trade Organisation authorizes this procedure.
Thailand plans to grant a compulsory license notably for Kaletra in order to be able to provide this treatment that is vital for People living with HIV who need to change their treatment regimen after their HIV virus has become resistant. A compulsory licence would thus enable Thailand to import generic versions of this medicine for a cost lower than that of the brand name Abbott version of the treatment.
Abbott has therefore knowledgeably decided to deprive People living with HIV in Thailand from an essential treatment. Beyond Thailand, developing countries worldwide are also directly feeling threatened by this despicable revengeful measure.
In addition to this blackmail, Abbott just initiated a lawsuit against Act Up-Paris in response to actions that took place on April 26, 2007: an Act Up-Paris initiated attempt to saturate the Abbott website by repeatedly connecting to it that mobilized several hundred people worldwide. Abbott is therefore proceeding to sue an association of people living with HIV and their peers .
AIDES hereby asks Abbott to end its legal proceeding against Act Up-Paris and asks all pharmaceutical companies to stop taking revengeful measures against countries that make use of compulsory licences.
AIDES also call upon other key actors of the fight against AIDS (the French Orders of Medical Practitioners and of Pharmacists, LEEM - the French pharmaceutical industry union) including also Mr Jean-François Delfraissy (ANRS Director), Gilles Brücker (InVs Director), Philippe Douste-Blazy (UNITAID president), Louis-Charles Viossat (French Ambassador on AIDS) et Michel Kazatchkine (Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) to take a public stand with regards to the behaviour of the pharmaceutical company Abbott.
Etiquetas: Abbott
# posted by gatoman : 15:49
