PRESS RELEASE
03 FEBRUARY 2001
CONTACT:
Asia Russell, Health GAP Coalition: 215.280.7536 / e-mail: asia@critpath.org
Mark Harrington: 212.353.8430 (until 2.3.01); 312.464.1000 (from 2.4.01)' e-mail: alacran7@aol.com
Global Coalition of AIDS Activists Calls on GlaxoSmithKline to Abandon Lawsuits
A coalition of 65 activist groups and over 100 AIDS activists, educators,
health care workers and service providers today called on GlaxoSmithKline,
one of the world's largest drug companies, to withdraw threatened lawsuits in
Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa which are intended to block people with AIDS
(PWAs) in those countries from having access to generic anti-AIDS medications.
The coalition, led by the Health GAP Coalition, Treatment Action Group (TAG),
and Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) took this action because in November 2000,
Glaxo threatened to sue Cipla Ltd. of India, a generic pharmaceutical
manufacturer, if Cipla continued to sell its generic Duovir, a combination of
the AIDS drugs AZT and 3TC (marketed by Glaxo as Combivir).
In addition, Glaxo has joined forty other drug companies in suing the South
African government for a 1997 law intended to broaden access to cheap generic
drugs in South Africa.
The activists wrote, "We believe that threatening lawsuits to prevent people
in poor countries already staggering under the weight of the AIDS pandemic,
excessive debt to western banks, poverty, and underdevelopment — from
accessing life-saving antiretroviral medications is simply unacceptable from
a moral and humanitarian point of view."
Instead, the activists suggested that Glaxo:
TAG Senior Policy Director Mark Harrington said, "We are announcing today a
Global Day of Solidarity on March 5, the day when the Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Association of South Africa's lawsuit against legal generic
drug access comes before the court in South Africa. On that day, some groups
will take direct action against drug companies, pharmaceutical trade
organizations, or the U.S. Trade Representative, which has just brought
action against Brazil for manufacturing generic antiretrovirals. The program
in Brazil is reaching over 85,000 people with AIDS and has saved thousands of
lives. No other program whether the UNAIDS Accelerating Access initiative
or the much-touted, but so far insignificant, discounts announced by five big
drug companies last May are reaching significant numbers of people with HIV
in the world's poorest countries."
The March 5 Global Day of Solidarity was initiated by South Africa's
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a grassroots advocacy organization which has
been struggling to make anti-AIDS drugs available to South Africa's estimated
4.2 million people living with HIV.
Founded in 1992, the Treatment Action Group, is the first and only AIDS
organization dedicated solely to advocating for larger and more efficient
research efforts, both public and private, towards finding a cure for AIDS.
The Treatment Action Group (TAG) fights to find a cure for AIDS and to ensure
that all people living with HIV receive the necessary treatment, care, and
information they need to save their lives. TAG focuses on the AIDS research
effort, both public and private, the drug development process, and our
nation's health care delivery systems. We meet with researchers,
pharmaceutical companies, and government officials, and resort when necessary
to acts of civil disobedience, or to acts of Congress. We strive to develop
the scientific and political expertise needed to transform policy. TAG is
committed to working for and with all communities affected by HIV.
#30
5 February 2001
Sir Richard Sykes
Chairman & Chief Executive
GlaxoSmithKline
Glaxo Wellcome House
Berkeley Avenue
Greenford, Middlesex
UB60NN United Kingdom
M. Jean-Pierre Garnier
Chief Executive Officer
GlaxoSmithKline
Glaxo Wellcome House
Berkeley Avenue
Greenford, Middlesex
UB60NN United Kingdom
Mr. David Stout
Chief Operating Officer
Pharmaceutical Operations
GlaxoSmithKline
5 Moore Drive
PO Box 13398
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Mr. John P. Kearney
Chief Executive Officer
GlaxoSmithKline South Africa (Pty) Limited
44 Old Pretoria Rd.
PO Box 3388
Halfway House 1685
Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa
Dear Sirs:
We are writing as a coalition of AIDS treatment advocates, educators, health care workers and service providers to request that GlaxoSmithKline immediately withdraw from participation in threatened legal action regarding the importation of generic antiretroviral medications in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa.
Specifically we refer to your threats of legal action against Cipla for selling Duovir, its generic form of Combivir, in Ghana (Wall Street Journal, 1 December 2000), and in Uganda (Glaxo-Wellcome letter to Cipla, 20 November 2000), and the announcement by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa of its intent to bring suit against the South African government on March 5 (Reuters, 15 January 2001).
As you are not doubt well aware, two-thirds of the world's 34 million HIV infected people live in Africa, the world's poorest continent. UNAIDS estimates that 4.2 million (20%) of South Africa's population of 39.7 million, 820,000 (8.3%) of Uganda's 21 million people, and 340,000 (3.6%) of Ghana's 19 million people are infected with HIV. The per capita income in South Africa is $3,160 per year (although most of the HIV infected population earns far less than that, if they are lucky enough to be employed at all), while the per capita income in Ghana is just $390 per year, and that in Uganda is $320.
We believe that threatening lawsuits to prevent people in poor countries — already staggering under the weight of the AIDS pandemic, excessive debt to western banks, poverty, and underdevelopment — from accessing life-saving antiretroviral medications is simply unacceptable from a moral and humanitarian point of view.
GlaxoSmithKline has several other options before it which would enable it to help increase, rather than decrease, access to antiretroviral medications among infected people in developing countries:
None of these steps would affect your markets in rich countries, which are where your profits come from. According to your own spokesman, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Africa represents less than one percent of GlaxoSmithKline's revenues or profits.
We doubt that you are earning significant profits in Ghana, in Uganda or in South Africa on overpriced medications which few can afford.
We appreciate Glaxo's efforts to develop new treatments for HIV, and we recognize that you have invested significant resources in the development, testing, approval, distribution, and marketing of antiretroviral medications. However, what use are these discoveries for the 95% of the world's HIV infected population which cannot afford them at current prices? Can you really maintain that 30 million people must die because they cannot afford your drugs? We recognize that it is not up to industry alone to resolve the issues of health care infrastructure, political leadership, and social mobilization which responding to the AIDS pandemic necessitates.
However, it is also important for drug companies not to stand in the way of saving the lives of people for whom the price of drugs is often the main, and sometimes the only, obstacle to treatment.
Since Glaxo, along with four other global pharmaceutical companies, announced in May 2000 their intent to provide steep discounts on anti-HIV medications to developing countries, many press releases have been issued, but how many discounted pills have reached anyone in Africa or elsewhere in the developing world? How many lives have been saved?
Over two million people around the world have died of AIDS since that announcement, and now you, along with 39 other companies, are going to court in order to stop the South African government, with the world's worst epidemic, from obtaining life-saving therapies by means established as legal under the TRIPs clause of the World Trade Organisation treaty. The TRIPs clause allows the granting of a compulsory license in cases where there is a national emergency. How could you deny that AIDS constitutes a national emergency in countries such as Ghana and South Africa?
We appeal to you to immediately cease and desist from using the court systems in Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, and elsewhere in the developing world to prevent HIV infected people from accessing life saving antiretroviral medications.
Yours truly,
Actions Traitements, Paris, France
ACT UP/East Bay, Oakland, CA
ACT UP/Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
African AIDS Network
African American AIDS Policy & Training Institute, Los Angeles, CA
AIDS Action Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
AIDS Committee of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
AIDS Foundation of South Africa
AIDSMeds.com, New York, NY
AIDS Research Alliance, West Hollywood, CA
AIDS Treatment Data Network, New York, NY
AIDS Treatment News, Philadelphia, PA
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), Washington, D.C.
Ama la Vida A.C., Juchitán, Oaxaca, México
American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), New York, NY
Asociación Costarricense de Personas que viven con VIH/SIDA, San José, Costa Rica
Asociación T-4 Batzordea, Bilbao, Spain
Asociación de Usuarios en Mantenimiento con Metadona Organizados, Barcelona, España
Associació Ciutadana AntiSida de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Association for the Treatment of AIDS in Guatemala
Australian Bisexual Network
Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations (AFAO), Sydney, Australia
Canadian Treatment Advocates Council
La Coalition des organismes communautaires de lutte contre le sida, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Comité Ciudadano anti-Sida de Granada (CONASIGRA), Granada, Spain
Confederación Española de Asociaciones de Padres de Alumnos (CEAPA), Madrid, España
Consumer Project on Technology, Washington, D.C.
Critical Path AIDS Project, Philadelphia, PA
D.C. Care Consortium, Washington, D.C.
Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe e.V., Berlin, Germany
European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), Düsseldorf, Germany
Foundation for AIDS & Immune Research (FAIR), Los Angeles, CA
Fundación Ecuatoriana EQUIDAD, Quito, Ecuador
Fundación Isamar, Cumaná-Edo, Sucre, Venezuela
Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fundación Vivir Mejor, Cali, Colombia
Fundación Vivir, Quito, Ecuador
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), New York, NY
German Treatment Activists Network, Berlin, Germany
Grupo de Trabajo sobre Tradatimento de VIH (GTT), Barcelona, Spain
Grupo Pela VIDDA/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Health GAP Coalition
Hepatitis C Action & Advocacy Coalition (HAAC), New York, NY
Infectious Diseases Journal of Pakistan
Information Center WOMYN FOR WOMYN
Inland Northwest AIDS Coalition, Spokane, WA
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO)
International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA), Brussels, Belgium
Italian Community Advisory Board, Rome, Italy
Middle East Childrens Alliance, Berkeley, CA
Mobilization Against AIDS International, San Francisco, CA
National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) USA
NYU Adult & Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit Community Advisory Board, New York, NY
Northwest International Health Action Coalition (NIHAC), Seattle, WA
Pro Salud Sexual y Reproductiva, A.C., Cd. De Monterrey, Neuvo León, México
Project Inform, San Francisco, CA
Projecte dels NOMS-SIDA, Catalonia, Spain
Provincetown Positive People with AIDS Coalition (PPPWAC), Provincetown, MA
Red Latinamericana de PVVIH/SIDA para Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
Red Mexicana de Personas que Viven con VIH/SIDA, México City, México
São Paulo State AIDS/NGO Forum, São Paulo State, Brazil
SIDA-STUDI, Barcelona, Spain
Southern Africa Network of AIDS Service Organizations (SANASO), Harare, Zimbabwe
Stop Sida, Barcelona, Spain
Title II Community AIDS National Network
Treatment Action Group, New York, NY
TRT-5, Paris, France
VIVO POSITIVO, Santiago, Chile
Union Positiva, Miami, FL
Terje Anderson, Executive Director, National Association of People with AIDS, Washington DC
Naila Baig Ansari, Publisher, Infectious Diseases Journal of Pakistan
Bill Arnold, Title II Community AIDS National Network
Elvia Lucia Avila Azua, Ama la Vida A.C., Juchitán, Oaxaca, México
Mark W. Baker, New England ProACT; CPCRA Community Constituency Group
Götz Bähr, Berliner AIDS-Hilfe e.V., Berlin, Germany
Irl Barefield, Executive Director, AIDS Research Alliance, West Hollywood, CA
Jordi Baroja, SIDA-STUDI, Barcelona, Spain
Carla Bosacoma, SIDA-STUDI, Barcelona, Spain
Ann Brameier, L.Ac., New York, NY
Shari Brenner, HIV Prevention & Services, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge MA
Richard Burzynski, ICASO, Toronto, Canada
Iolanda Cacho, SIDA-STUDI, Barcelona, Spain
José Carbonell, Asociación de Usuarios en Mantenimiento con Metadona Organizados Barcelona, España
George Carter, Direct Access Alternative Information Resources (DAAIR), New York, NY
Marco Antonio se Castro Figueredo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Jeannette Calvachi Noboa, Quito, Ecuador
David Cantero, MSF, Barcelona, Spain
Judith Cobeña Guardia, Associació Ciutadana AntiSida de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Véronique Collard, TRT-5, Paris
Chris Collins, San Francisco, CA
Susan Cu-Uvin, MD, Immunology Center, The Miriam Hospital, Brown Univ., Providence RI
Julie Davids, Critical Path AIDS Project, Philadelphia, PA
Lynda M. Dee, Esq., President, AIDS Action Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
Thomas J. Dionne, AIDSTALK, Washington, D.C.
Rubens Duda, President, São Paulo State AIDS/NGO Forum, São Paulo State, Brazil
Popho Earthwind, Information Center WOMYN FOR WOMYN
Marck A. Fedor, CEO, Click Technical Resources, Atlanta, GA
Timothy Flanigan, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI
Elena Font, Pueblos Hermanos. Madrid, España
Joshua T. Formentera, President/Executive Director, Positive Action Foundation Philippines, Manila
Kenneth Fornataro, Executive Director, AIDS Treatment Data Network, New York, NY
Carlos Gaon, Director, Fundación Vivir, Quito, Ecuador
Tony Garcia-Peleaz, PWA Coalition Colorado, Denver CO
Robin Gorna, Executive Director, Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations (AFAO), Sydney
Linda Grinberg, Foundation for AIDS Research (FAIR), Los Angeles, CA
Ian Grubb, Health Hounds Inc., Toronto, Canada
Mauro Guarneri, Italian Community Advisory Board, Rome, Italy
Jeff Gustavson, Survive AIDS, San Francisco, CA
Mark Harrington, Senior Policy Director, Treatment Action Group
Tim Horn, Physicians' Research Network, New York, NY
John Iversen, former co-chair, HIV Services Planning Council, Oakland, CA
John S. James, AIDS Treatment News, Philadelphia, PA
Richard Jefferys, AIDS Treatment Data Network, New York, NY
Samantha Johnston, SAATHI, New York, NY
Steve Kovacev, Provincetown Positive People with AIDS Coalition (PPPWAC), Provincetown, MA
Lark Lands, POZ Magazine, New York, NY
James Learned, Hepatitis C Action & Advocacy Coalition (HAAC), New York, NY
Roger Le Clerc, Director General, La COCQ-Sida, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Luis Leiva Friedman, Asociación Costarricense de Personas que viven con VIH/SIDA/Red Latinamericana de PVVIH/SIDA para Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
Iris Long, Ph.D., AACTG CAB member at NYU Medical Center, New York, NY
Jordi D. Lopez, President, Stop Sida, Barcelona, Spain
Kathy Loucks, Inland Northwest AIDS Coalition, Spokane WA
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology, Washington, D.C.
Anuar Luna, Red Mexicana de Personas que Viven con VIH/SIDA, México City, México
Sharon Ann Lynch, HealthGAP Coalition, USA
Don MacIver, Chair, NYU Community Advisory Board, New York, NY
Valerie Papaya Mann, Executive Director, D.C. Care Consortium, Washington, D.C.
Derrick Mapp, Brooklyn, NY
Michelle Marchione, Canadian Treatment Advocates Council (CTAC)
Rev. Mother Mary Elizabeth, OSM, Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, CA
Lynne Mayer, Greensburg, PA
Craig McClure, Health Hounds Inc., Toronto, Canada
Rose McCullough, Executive Director, AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), Washington, D.C.
Karen McKinnon, Director, Columbia University HIV Mental Health Training Project, New York, NY
Jorge Melguizo, Director de Cooperación, EDEX, Bilbao (Bizkaia), Spain
Shaun Mellors, AIDS Foundaiton of South Africa
Mary Anne Mercer, Co-chair, Northwest International Health Action Coalition, Seattle, WA
Michael Meulbroek, Projecte dels NOMS-SIDA, Catalonia, Spain
Mardie Millit, New York, NY
Orlando Montoya Herrera, Director Ejecutivo, Fundación Ecuatoriana EQUIDAD, Quito, Ecuador
Bernardino Mosquera, Union Positiva, Miami, FL
Farai Mugweni, Southern Africa Network of AIDS Service Organizations (SANASO), Harare, Zimbabwe
Robert J. Munk, Ph.D., Arroyo Seco, NM
Vincent T. Neumann, Jr., Community Constituency Group, Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group
Donna Rae Palmer, Executive Director, Mobilization Against AIDS International, San Francisco
Rodrigo Pascal, President, VIVO POSITIVO, National PWA Coordinating Committee, Santiago, Chile
Janice Price, M.Ed., RN, HIV Research Coordinator, Seattle, WA
Regina Quattrochi, Bailey House, New York, NY
Margarita Quevedo, Directora Ejecutiva, Corporación Kimirina, Ecuador
Oswaldo A. Rada, Fundación Vivir Mejor, Cali, Colombia
Rita Raj
Claire Rappoport, Person with AIDS, Brisbane, CA
Maria Ines Re, Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bill Reece
Yolanda Regalado, UNAPRO, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Joseph W. Rios, Director, Association for the Treatment of AIDS in Guatemala
Wayne Roberts, National Coordinator, Australian Bisexual Network
Frank Rodenbourg, Secretary General, Actions Traitements, Paris, France
Carlos Alfonso Rodriguez.R, Fundación Isamar, Cumaná-Edo, Sucre, Venezuela
M. Jose Roman, SIDA-STUDI, Barcelona, Spain
Barry Rund, HCV Education/Case Management Program, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA
Asia Russell, ACT UP/Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Luis G. Santiago, New York, NY
Jeffrey Schouten, MD, JD, Seattle Treatment Education Project, Seattle, WA
Matt Sharp, Person with AIDS, Chicago, IL
Dr. Stephen Shapiro, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Maudelle Shirek, Vice Mayor, Berkeley, CA
Bill Snow, San Francisco, CA
Elsa Mónica Solis Zamudio, México
Clint Spencer, Community Advisory Board, U. of Hawaii AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, Honololu, HI
Peter Staley, AIDSMeds.com, New York, NY
Tracy Swan, Coordinator, HIV & HCV Outreach & Education Program, Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), Cambridge, MA
Joan Tallada, Grupo de Trabajo sobre Tradatimento de VIH (GTT), Barcelona, Spain
Ezio Tavora dos Santos Filho, Grupo Pela VIDDA/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Eulalia Vaquero Gómez, Confederación Española de Asociaciones de Padres de Alumnos (CEAPA), Madrid, España
Berndt Vielhaber, Berlin, Germany & Vels, Austria
Fehmida Visnegarwala, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Filippo von Scholösser, NADIR, Rome, Italy; European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG)
Bill Wade, DO, MPH, Family Medicine & Counseling, St. Louis, MO
Dr. Gunto Aurel Weiler, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe e.V., Berlin, Germany
Lee Wildes, Director, African AIDS Network
Phill Wilson, African American AIDS Policy Training Institute & AIDS Social Policy Archive, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles
Lee Zaslofsky, AIDS Committee of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
cc: The Hon. Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary General
James Wolfensohn, World Bank
Gro Harlem Brundtland, World Health Organization
Peter Piot, M.D., UNAIDS
The Hon. Thabo Mbeki, President, Republic of South Africa
Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Minister of Health, Republic of South Africa
Zackie Achmat, Chairperson, Treatment Action Campaign
The Hon. Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
The Hon. Donald Evans, U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative
U.S. Congressional Black Caucus
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