LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its efforts to lower drug prices and improve access to lifesaving AIDS treatments globally, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US' largest provider of HIV/AIDS healthcare, education and prevention and operator of free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, is rolling out a print advertising campaign this week that criticizes US drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) for its steep pricing and limited drug access policies in Mexico and other 'Middle Income' countries for two of its key AIDS treatments: and Reyataz (atazanavir) and Videx (didanosine or DDL), both of which can be key components of effective combined AIDS drug regimens or cocktails. The ads, with the headline, 'AIDS Drug Prices to Die For,' will begin to roll out in select publications in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and will expand to include print outlets in Mexico City during the first week of March.
"In Mexico, Bristol-Meyers Squibb charges four times as much for Reyataz and Videx as it does in least-developed countries in Africa and parts of Asia, a cold-hearted business calculation which effectively makes these drugs out of reach for nearly all people living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico," said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President. "Through this ad campaign, we hope to make executives at BMS, public policy makers and the public-at-large aware of the inequity in BMS' pricing and access policies surrounding these key AIDS drugs as compared with its pricing and access policies in what are considered least-developed countries."
The Foundation's BMS "AIDS Drug Prices to Die For" ad campaign unfolds over the next three weeks with print ads running in publications including The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Weekly and La Jornada (in Mexico City).
The World Bank classifies Mexico as a middle-income country using Gross National Income (GNI) as its measure. The country has a per capita income of roughly US $7,300; however, AIDS drug treatments that can cost as little as US$150 in what are designated least-developed or low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere (e.g. Uganda, Malawi) can cost as much as US$6,000 in Mexico -- making these lifesaving AIDS regimens all but unaffordable to the majority in need there.
This is in part because middle-income countries are usually not proffered the same drug price reductions as low-income countries. However, when it comes to country classification, higher overall average income -- middle-income versus low-income -- does not necessarily indicate less poverty, and GNI, which divides a country's total income by its total population to arrive at an estimate of average individual incomes, often obscures the fact that the majority of a country's citizens may live in poverty.
"Bristol-Myers Squibb has already proven willing to help certain HIV/AIDS patients in need through its laudable 'Secure the Future' program elsewhere in the world," said Patricia Campos, M.D., AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Latin America Bureau Chief, who is based in Mexico. "Many patients' lives here depend on access to these very same drugs that are available elsewhere at a much lower cost. We strongly urge BMS to immediately include Mexico in its 'Secure the Future' drug access and treatment program, and set its own access program prices for Reyataz and Videx equal to the generic price of each drug to help ensure that people in need in Mexico and other middle-income countries are not arbitrarily priced out of access to such potential lifesaving AIDS treatments."
In 2004, Bristol-Myers Squibb's revenues for Reyataz were US$369 million, for Videx, US$274 million.
In Latin America, AIDS Healthcare Foundation currently provides free anti-retroviral treatment to people in need through its clinics in Mexico (in Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta and opening later this year, La Paz) and in Guatemala (Quetzaltenango).
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
