FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A small but energized group of AIDS advocates participated in a ‘pill bottle protest’ hosted by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), earlier today outside the Foster City headquarters of Gilead Sciences Inc. to protest the company’s pricing of its HIV/AIDS medications. The protestors carried handmade banners and signs with the message: “Gilead, do the right thing!” while wearing pill bottle sandwich board cutouts of Gilead’s bestselling AIDS drugs, Atripla and Truvada in honor of those AIDS patients who remain on AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waitlists while Gilead does little or nothing to help improve AIDS drug access and reduce ADAP waiting lists.
The pill bottle protest was held near Gilead’s Foster City headquarters at the corner of Lakeside Drive and East 3rd in light of the severe crisis facing the nation’s ADAPs, a network of federal and state funded programs that provide life-saving HIV treatments to low income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS nationwide. The advocates’ goal was to raise public awareness and educate community members—including Gilead employees—regarding the steep prices that government programs are paying for Gilead’s blockbuster HIV/AIDS drug, Atripla (efavirenz & tenofovir & emtricitabine)—currently $10,000 per patient, per year for ADAP.
In conjunction with its drug pricing actions targeting Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation previously released a 30-second television commercial: “Gilead: AIDS Drug Prices to Die For.” The ad ran on MSNBC and CNN in San Francisco, Foster City and surrounding areas, and urged the company to lower prices immediately and directed viewers to send an eletter to Gilead CEO John Martin by visiting www.2gilead.org. Viewer reaction to the provocative commercial can be found at: www.facebook.com/aidshealth. One Sacramento-based member of the group’s online constituency commented: “My AIDS medication Atripla alone cost $1591.88 per month. Thank God that I have help to pay for this, otherwise I would not be here to give my opinion.”
As of August 25th, 9,141 low-income AIDS patients in 12 states have been placed on waiting lists to access lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications through the nation’s network of ADAPs. However, in a particularly Dickensian move, several states have also recently capped further enrollment in their ADAPs or are sharply reducing eligibility for their programs based on a percentage of Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income (in some cases cutting the FPL-eligible income from 400% to 200%), effectively denying needy patients access to medications, yet because enrollment is officially capped—or eligibility eliminated—these additional patients are never formally added to the states’ ADAP waiting list rosters.
“Atripla, Gilead’s top selling AIDS drug, accounts for over 20% of ADAP expenditures, generating millions in revenue for the company. However, at a cost of over $10,000 per year, ADAP can no longer afford to pay for this and other Gilead drugs without price relief,” said Eileen Garcia, Community Outreach Manager for AHF and a leader of the protest. “Given that Atripla is sold ‘at cost’ for $600 per year in developing countries, Gilead could lower the price significantly and still make a huge profit, yet it has not. We feel it was important to bring this message home to federal employees, as hard-hit government-funded programs like ADAP bare the brunt of Gilead’s greed.”
Background on ADAP
With state budgets stretched thin and increasing numbers of unemployed workers without health insurance, many states have been forced to cap enrollment in their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. Currently, there are over 9,100 individuals on waiting lists to receive lifesaving AIDS medications in twelve states. Hundreds of patients in need are being added to the waiting list each week. In addition, thousands more Americans living with HIV/AIDS have been dropped from the program or made ineligible to receive medications through ADAP due to stricter eligibility requirements.
Nationwide, ADAPs serve over 165,000 people, accounting for one third of people on AIDS treatment in the U.S. Unfortunately, the need for these programs expands every year, as more and more people become infected and diagnosed with HIV/AIDS; each year thousands of newly diagnosed HIV patients turn to ADAPs because they cannot afford their medicines.
“Our intention with actions like the protest today is to encourage Gilead to reflect on its own remarkable mission and history as a very different sort of drug company,” said Jessie Gruttadauria, AHF’s Director of Public Affairs/Interim Director, Public Health Division. “The nation’s network of AIDS Drug Assistance Programs face desperate circumstances because of high prices for drugs like Gilead’s Atripla. AHF is willing to work in partnership with Gilead toward solutions for ADAP and to create and foster dialogue with the community, but we will not rest and never stop should companies like Gilead continue to pursue pricing and policies that conflict with the greater good and health and well-being of the public.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and services to more than 182,000 individuals in 27 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific region and Eastern Europe. www.aidshealth.org
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6847386&lang=en.