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(NEW YORK) A dozen activists rushed the stage at the opening of Pfizer's annual stockholder meeting. The activists left a legal picket outside, ran up the stairs and stormed the meeting.

Activists from ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT Up New York, South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and Latino groups distributed information about Pfizer's "market-driven genocide" to shareholders as they arrived at today's meetings at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in mid-town Manhattan. Inside the meeting room, the dozen activists scattered pill bottles and blood money, and used the microphones to demand sustainable, affordable access to diflucan (Fluconazole), Pfizer's life-saving anti-fungal medication.

Earlier this month, Pfizer responded to a high-pressure campaign by activists in the United States and South Africa by agreeing to provide its antifungal drug free to HIV positive South Africans with cryptococcal meningitis, an otherwise fatal brain infection. So far, the company has failed to answer similar requests from Nicaragua and other Central American countries, where an estimated 30,000 HIV positive individuals have limited access to essential medicines. Uganda has also asked for a sustainable access program. "This price gouging is unacceptable, as is an inconsistent access policy," says Paul Davis of ACT UP Philadelphia. "Pfizer and Warner-Lambert shareholders need to consider that Pfizer is responsible for millions of preventable deaths around the world."

Pfizer is trying to get through these crucial meetings without addressing the issue," says Mel Stevens of ACT UP New York. "Itšs time for them to stop stalling and commit, publicly, to making their drug available and affordable to any country that needs it."

Fluconazole is used to treat cryptococcal meningitis, an otherwise fatal brain infection that afflicts roughly 8 percent of people with AIDS. It is also used to treat candiadiasis, a serious fungal infection.Without a price reduction or substantive, sustainable plan for improved access, most of Central Americašs estimated 30,000 HIV positive individuals cannot afford the drug. In Guatemala, where the average monthly wage is U.S.$250, a single 200 mg fluconazole pill costs U.S.$11.90 in the public sector and U.S.$27.60 in the private sector. In Thailand, where there is no patent on the drug, the same pill costs U.S.$0.60.

"It's tragic that these pills sit in the closets of pharmaceutical around the corner from the hospitals where people are dying because no one can afford them. Meanwhile the companies reap billions in profits from wealthy nations." says Richard Stern, a Central American treatment advocate who made the request that Pfizer make its drug available to the region, particularly hard-hit countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Activists are challenging Pfizer to reduce the price of the drug or agree to allow countries that cannot afford it to produce it generically. "Donations are short-term solutions," says SharonAnn Lynch of ACT UP New York. "Pfizer needs to take substantial steps to provide for long-term, affordable access on terms that work for every country."

"The tremendous scope of the AIDS epidemic requires a worldwide price reduction on fluconazole," says Zackie Achmat, a member of South Africašs activist group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), who attended the protest. "The donation is a start, but Pfizer is still placing profits before lives all over the world." TAC has encouraged the South African government to accept the donation, and has also given Pfizer a July 1 deadline for agreeing to a price reduction.

In 1999, Pfizer earned U.S.$1.2 billion in revenue from on fluconazole sales. "For the money they make, we can help so many people that need these medications. That would not effect their profits," says protester Jesus Aguais of AID for AIDS, a nonprofit organization that provides recycled HIV medications to Latin America.

"People with HIV/AIDS in Central America are among the most abandoned of victims of human rights violations and this action could be of tremendous importance," says Richard Stern. "Until Pfizer agrees to a sustainable, affordable access program for distributing fluconazole to all PWAs who need it in Central America, many will continue to die."

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