Contact: Karyn Kaplan, HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator, (+1-212-216-1256) karyn@iglhrc.org
Sydney Levy, Campaign Director (+1-415-577-8680) sydney@iglhrc.org

IGLHRC Demands Pricing Decrease for AIDS Drugs:
Pfizer's Pricing Targeted

Doctors Without Borders Calls on Pfizer to Lower Price of Drug Used in AIDS Care

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission demands that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. lower the cost of the life-saving medicine Fluconazole, a patented drug that is extremely effective for the treatment and prevention of opportunistic infections associated with AIDS. IGLHRC supports the efforts of South African activists at the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to broaden access to this life-saving medicine. IGLHRC demands that Pfizer dramatically reduce the price of Fluconazole in poor countries throughout the world.

"As we see it, Pfizer can decide to save lives or to hoard profits," said Karyn Kaplan, IGLHRC's HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator. "Access to healthcare and life-saving medicines is a human right and Pfizer has a moral obligation to respond. They have the option to lower their prices or allow cheaper generic versions of the drugs to be marketed, or both. People are dying. Lives are hanging in the balance," Kaplan continued. Generic versions of patented medications can often be produced at one-tenth the price.

On Monday, March 13, 2000, TAC members supported by many representatives of civil society (i.e., Congress of South African Trade Unions, and church leaders from the Anglican Church, the Catholics Bishops Conference), met with staff from Pfizer in Johannesburg, South Africa. The specific demand by TAC was to lower prices or to issue a voluntary license that would allow others to produce the medicine at a lower price. TAC issued the demand with a seven-day deadline for Pfizer's response.

In 1998 the worldwide sales of Fluconazole amounted to US $916 million. Only Pfizer holds marketing rights to Fluconazole in South Africa, where the cost of Fluconazole is nearly 15 times higher than in Thailand where the drug is not patent protected. Pfizer, as the patent holder of the drug, has the ability to make it more available to a wider set of the population. It is presently illegal for any company other than Pfizer to produce or to sell less expensive versions of Fluconazole in South Africa but Pfizer has the power to change that. Fluconazole is critical in the treatment of systemic thrush and cryptococcal meningitis which are common life-threatening complications in African AIDS patients.

"Four and a half million people are currently infected with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Each year 100,000 deaths are attributed to AIDS in that country," said Sydney Levy, IGLHRC's Campaign Director. "The daily dose of Fluconazole currently costs more than two times the daily wage of an average employed South African. This pattern of life-denying over-pricing is replicating itself around the world" said Levy.

In the past year, there were 2.6 million AIDS deaths, over 85% were in Africa. Ten percent of all new infections worldwide occur in South Africa, which is the fastest rate of increase in the AIDS pandemic.

IGLHRC's mission is to protect and advance the human rights of all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status. Learn more about them at www.iglhrc.org.

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