AHF Campaign to Shame Gilead over AIDS & Hepatitis C Drug Pricing Expands with June 15 Protest in Foster City

Lunchtime protest in front of Gilead headquarters will include 50 advocates outfitted with "Gilead Greed Kills" tee shirts, banners and placards; protest follows a similar action last week as Gilead executives were presenting at a Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The Southern California protest last week also included a hearse and a small plane towing a “Gilead Greed Kills!” banner overhead. AHF’s latest protest campaign follows a blistering Los Angeles Times article documenting Gilead’s patent manipulation on its HIV/AIDS drugs containing tenofovir.

LOS ANGELES--()--On Wednesday, June 15, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, will host a protest starting at 12 noon PT in front of the headquarters of Gilead Sciences (333 Lakeside Dr., Foster City, CA 94404), over the company’s AIDS and hepatitis C drug pricing and policies. The protest will include approximately 50 advocates outfitted with "Gilead Greed Kills" tee shirts, banners and placards and follows a similar protest action spearheaded by AHF last week as Gilead executives were presenting at a Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes.

 
WHAT:

“Gilead Greed Kills!” DRUG PRICING PROTEST @ Gilead HQ

 
WHEN:

WEDNESDAY, June 15, 2016 12:00 – 1:00pm PACIFIC Time

WHERE:

In front of: Gilead Sciences, Inc. Headquarters

333 Lakeside Dr., Foster City, CA 94404
 
WHO:

50+/- drug pricing advocates & protesters with “Gilead Greed Kills!” banners, signs and placards

CONTACT:

Dale R. Gluth, 415.218.9587 mobile

 

Last week’s Gilead protest caravan in Southern California featured a hearse, a double-deck bus and 40+ cars outfitted with "Gilead Greed Kills" banners and placards. It also included a small plane towing a “Gilead Greed Kills” banner over the resort. (Video of plane @ SoCal Gilead protest) The protests came about following a recent and blistering LA Times article that exposed the Gilead’s patent manipulation of its best-selling HIV drugs containing tenofovir.

“In addition to protesting the $1,000-plus pricing of Gilead’s hepatitis C drugs Harvoni and Sovaldi, our protests serve as a reminder of Gilead’s previous bad deeds in its drug pricing and policies,” said Dale R. Gluth, Bay Area Regional Director for AHF, in anticipation of the Foster City protest. “In late 2012, within days of FDA-approval of Gilead’s four-in-one AIDS treatment combination Stribild, the company priced that treatment at $28,500 per patient, per year, Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC). For the record, $28,500 is more than most U.S. AIDS patients earn in any given year!”

In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, AHF alleges that Gilead halted its early research of the form of tenofovir known as TAF in order to extend its patent on its existing HIV medication—TDF, which yielded billions of dollars in annual sales. While Gilead argues that the move was only to shift attention toward another type of HIV medicine, their lawyers also maintain that the company “had no duty to develop, test, seek approval of, or launch its new product on any particular timetable.” Meanwhile, HIV patients only had access to the more-harmful version of Gilead’s drug, which had damaging effects on their kidneys and bones.

"Gilead’s history of predatory pricing on its lifesaving medications—first on its HIV drugs, and now, for its hepatitis medications—sets the stage for protests like ours as well as for direct action from government officials and drug purchasers for government programs seeking to compel Gilead to cut its outrageous pricing. This is the just start of a new and ongoing campaign of protests highlighting Gilead’s unbridled greed,” said AIDS advocate Jesse Brooks.

In response to Gilead’s patent manipulation for higher profits, AHF is also asking Congress and the FDA to conduct a formal investigation of Gilead as well as increased scrutiny of the actions of pharmaceutical companies. AHF also is running a print ad in several LGBT news outlets across the country highlighting the issue.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 629,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

Contacts

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Dale Gluth, Bay Area Regional Director
+1.415.218.9587 mobile
dale.gluth@aidshealth.org
or
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications
+1.323.308.1833 work
+1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org

Release Summary

AHF Campaign to Shame Gilead Over AIDS & Hepatitis C Drug Pricing Expands with June 15 Protest in Foster City

Contacts

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Dale Gluth, Bay Area Regional Director
+1.415.218.9587 mobile
dale.gluth@aidshealth.org
or
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications
+1.323.308.1833 work
+1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org