CONTACT: (on site cell) Paul Davis: (215) 280-7536, (215) 816-6936 (Philadelphia) Kate Krauss (215) 731-1844
If you reach the ACT UP voice mail system, leave a message in box 9

(MEDIA, Pennsylvania) ACT UP confronted George W. Bush today, disrupting his "Victory 2000" rally at the Delaware County Courthouse. ACT UP members disrupted the candidate's speech on his planned tax cuts. This event comes one year after Vice President Al Gore and US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky's September 17 announcement of a new trade policy where some poor countries would be permitted to manufacture affordable generic versions of expensive patented medicines tht improve and greatly extend the lives of people with AIDS.

"George Bush is going to reverse US trade policy on drugs and patents in a way that will leave millions of Africans for dead while soaking US taxpayers to continue to subsidize the exorbitant profits of the price gouging pharmaceutical industry," said ACT UP Philadelphia's Paul Davis. "We demand that the next US President help poor nations manufacture generic versions of expensive life-preserving medicine." Davis noted that Brazil made international headlines in July when it's government pledged to provide technical assistance to African nations seeking to set up local factories to provide free AIDS drugs.

90% of the globes' 35 million people with HIV worldwide have no access to antiviral medicine. The generic-drugs trade policy was solidified by President Clinton during his December 1 address to WTO delegates in Seattle. The Administration issued an Executive Order in May formalizing the new policy for the hardest-hit nations in sub-Saharan Africa, where 15-25% of the population is infected, yet has no access to HIV medicine. Almost all of Africa's 23 million people with HIV will die within 12 years without medicine.

ACT UP members reported that a Bush Administration would reverse or supercede the Executive Order in order to please its drug company backers.

The activists chanted, "Bush, you're a puppet of drug corporations! Medication for all - drugs for every nation!"

This disruption comes on the heels of another "zap" of a Bush fundraiser in Bethlehem, PA, where HIV positive member Mark Milano interrupted the candidate, demanding to know "Where is your plan for AIDS drugs for poor countries?"

Activists insist that a Bush presidency would be disastrous for people with AIDS in the United States and around the world, pointing to Bush's poorly-regarded record on AIDS prevention and treatment during his five years as governor of Texas, as well as his strong ties to pharmaceutical companies.

ACT UP members report that a request for a meeting was not responded to, nor was a written request for information.

Citing Bush's Medicare prescription coverage plan, AIDS activists charge Bush with supporting drug companies and insurance firms instead of people with AIDS.

"Bush's Medicare plan is corporate welfare, pure and simple," said Laura McTighe of ACT UP. "Rather than the common-sense, free market approach of Gore, which allows the Medicare program to utilize its bulk purchasing power to limit price increases, the Bush's plan would reward HMOs for creating a complicated scheme of reimbursement and coverage that will limit the benefits and permit drug companies to keep prices high while taxpayers will continue subsidizing the enormous profits of the pharmaceutical industry."

While public criticism of domestic and international pharmaceutical company pricing practices has intensified, Bush has faced little scrutiny about conflicts of interest within his campaign's inner circle. Deborah Steelman, Bush's top health care advisor, also heads the top drug company and health industry lobbying firm Steelman Enterprises, Inc. Recent articles report that Steelman would be tapped as Secretary of Health and Human Services for a Bush Administration, making her the top public health official in the country.

"AIDS decimates countries around the globe, due to drug company greed," said Bob Kahn of ACT UP. "And Bush wants to make some pharmaceutical flunky the most powerful public health official in the U.S.? Clearly the lives of millions of destitute people with AIDS are inconsequential to him and his industry cronies. This kind of compassion we don't need."

Steelman opposes strategies that activists describe as sensible and cost-effective measures to increase drug access, such as Medicare using its leverage as a drug purchaser to secure reasonable prescription drug prices. Steelman and the drug companies that fund the Bush effort also object to poor countries eschewing drug patents in order to obtain affordable generic versions of desperately needed AIDS drugs. This practice, called compulsory licensing, is legal according to international trade rules.

ACT UP is widely credited with forcing significant change in US trade policy on access to cheap, generic AIDS drugs after the group targeted the Clinton/Gore Administration with a series of "zaps" and major demonstrations. These actions included disruptions of the first several months of Vice President Al Gore's campaign appearances.

Following confrontations with the AIDS activists, the Administration recanted, announcing a shift in domestic policy to one of flexibility on the issue of access to medication versus drug company intellectual property protection.

Most recently, on May 10, 2000, President Clinton issued an Executive Order halting the US Government's routine practice of bullying sub-Saharan countries pursuing WTO-legal options to manufacture generic versions of expensive patented medicines. "We fear that a drug-industry backed Bush Administration would reverse the executive order. With 24.5 million African lives at stake, AIDS drugs for Africa must become a campaign issue for Bush as well as Gore." stated ACT UP's Paul Davis.

ACT UP plans a very large action shutting down the Republican National Headquarters in Washington DC on Friday, October 13. "Unless there is a Bush policy announcement that will lead to generic drugs for Africa, Friday the 13th will be a very unlucky day for the son of former President Bush," said Davis.

ACT UP DEMANDS FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES:

o Expansion of the Clinton Executive Order on AIDS drugs and sub-Saharan Africa to all least-developed and developing nations. The US Government must not use its economic power to punish poor countries that are pursuing sustainable, self-sufficient solutions to the AIDS crisis.

o The US Government must facilitate access to generic AIDS drugs for poor countries by calling for the bulk manufacture and distribution of generic medicines to least developed and developing nations at or below manufacturing cost. We demand that the US facilitate the manufacture and distribution by an international body such as the World Health Organization of the numerous medications which the US currently retains rights to. Drug company price reductions or 'donation' programs, while potentially useful when not riddled with conditions, are never substitutions for self-sufficient, sustainable solutions to the deadly lack of access to essential AIDS drugs.

o The US Government must immediately and unilaterally cancel the debt of the world's poorest and most AIDS-affected nations, without imposing onerous conditions. Debt relief plans underway already must be accelerated and stripped of structural adjustment requirements.

For more information on ACT UP's campaigns to help developing nations gain access to AIDS drugs see http://aids.org/healthgap

For more documents on intellectual property and access to medicines see the access to medication website of the Consumer Project on Technology: http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/

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