Contact: Paul Davis (mobile) +1 215 833 4102

Bush-Glaxo Axis of Evil
AIDS President Bush recycles damaged goods in lead up to G8 meeting:
NO NEW MONEY, NO DRUGS FOR FAMILIES WITH AIDS

WHO: ACT UP, Africa Action, the Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, and Student Global AIDS Campaign

WHEN: Wednesday June 19

WHAT: Angry 6:15 PM press conference outside $25 million "President's Dinner" GOP fundraiser chaired by EnronGlaxoKline at the Washington Convention Center, 9th St. & New York Ave. NW.

TARGET: President George Bush, Glaxo CEO Jean Paul Garnier AT one of the largest political fundraisers in history

WHY:
* debunk Morning 6/19 Bush global AIDS sham announcement
* demand $2.5 billion for global AIDS in run-up to G7 meeting
* demand affordable generic medications for people in developing countries in run up to WTO patent meeting next week.

WASHINGTON, June 19 ã Activists denounced the global AIDS plan President Bush raised this morning in a White House Address. The activist groups report that the plan is "all for show," containing little new money, while sabotaging a bipartisan effort that would have made a substantial new U.S. contribution in 2002 to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Leading AIDS activist groups ACT UP, Africa Action, the Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign are sponsoring an angry press conference tomorrow evening outside of "The President's Dinner." The fundraiser for the Republican House and Senate campaigns is expected to take in at least $25 million dollars, and is expected to be the largest fundraiser in history.

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Jean Paul Garnier is the chair of the fundraising event. GSK has raised at least over $250,000 for the event. "Enron-style influence purchasing is not surprising for a drug company that is $2.7 billion in arrears in a tax dispute with the IRS," said ACT UP New York's Sharonann Lynch. "What is surprising is that, on the same day President Bush has sold out millions of people with HIV, he would appear on the same stage with one of the companies most responsible for the death of millions of people with AIDS worldwide."

President Bush's announcement comes after he personally intervened to derail a bipartisan effort that was expected to win hundreds of millions in emergency funds for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Global Fund makes grants for comprehensive, life-saving AIDS treatment, care, and prevention in poor countries, and is expected to reach bankruptcy by this fall when a second round of grants are due.

A widely endorsed $700 million amendment from Senators Specter and Durbin narrowly lost a vote in the Senate on June 6, due largely to votes being promised to Senator Helms and Frist's $500 million bill focusing on mother-to-child transmission. This fall-back amendment was regarded as a safer bet that would still have put substantial resources into the AIDS fight. The $500 amendment was initiated by Senator Helms.

The Helms/Frist amendment was gutted by the President a few hours before the vote, reduced to only $100 million (on top of $100 million already in the underlying bill).

"Today's announcement is a shameful face saving move by the President, said Allison Dinsmore of ACT UP. "He cut the legs out from under Senator Specter and Durbin's bipartisan measure which would have provided urgently needed resources to the Global Fund before it goes bankrupt later this year. Then Bush robbed $400 million from the modest amendment from Senators Helms and Frist. Today, the President tried to make headlines by announcing the same money, but delayed for years."

Advance White House sources indicate that Bush plans to fudge facts by claiming $500 million dollars in new global AIDS spending. "The sad reality is, the Bush announcement only has $300 million in it, which does not start to trickle out until 2003 and 2004. We also will not know until next year if the President is going to request 'new' money, or if he plans to rob other important programs as he did with the initial contribution to the Global Fund," said Health GAPs Paul Davis, Director of US Government Relations. "It is dishonest of President Bush to takes credit for $200 million in spending for Global AIDS that passed the House and Senate attached to the June 6 emergency supplemental vote. Of the small numbers contained in the final amendment, Senator Frist falsely claims credit for $200 million, making a grab for $100 million that was already in the underlying bill," states Davis.

"Had Senators Frist and Helms and President Bush simply sat on their hands, the Global Fund would have received $700 million urgently needed new dollars from the Specter/Durbin amendment. Many more people with AIDS worldwide will die because the Global Fund will have to turn away many solid proposals before the end of the year." reports Davis.

GlaxoSmithKline has taken numerous steps to block access to affordable generic medicines in developing countries. Glaxo tied the South African government up in courts, blocking the Mandela Administration's plan to manufacture lifesaving Antiretroviral drugs. GSK has also used its fundraising prowess to influence the President and congress to impose unilateral trade rules that block access, including language slipped into the "Fast Track" trade bill currently making its way to a conference committee. "After we met with USTR staff Tuesday morning about the upcoming TRIPS Council meeting on the export of affordable generic drugs to impoverished nations, it was clear that GSK's Garnier has bought the policies of the Bush Administration," stated Asia Russell, Health GAP's Director of Multilateral Institutions. "Next week at the TRIPS Council, the Bush Administration is going to oppose the export of affordable generics to impoverished nations." The TRIPS Council is the WTO body that administers international patent agreements.

Besides promising too little money, activists lambasted the White House plan for ignoring the immediate, overwhelming need in the developing world for medicines and HIV treatment.

The Bush plan prioritizes paying only for mother to child HIV transmission prevention programs, not to buying life extending medicines to treat people already infected with HIV. "President Bush is refusing to commit the modest resources necessary to stabilize a continent being decimated by a treatable disease," said Russell. "By choosing to focus primarily on 'innocent' newborns, Bush is leaving women, families, and communities for dead. We hope the majority of the resources will be put into treating families and communities, so that infants will have stable homes."

"The bodies won't stop piling up until Bush commits $2.5 billion in new money for HIV that prioritizes getting medicine into the hands of people with AIDS," stated Russell.

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