Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PRNewswire - December 10, 2003
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US' largest AIDS organization which operates free HIV treatment clinics in the US, South Africa, Uganda, and Honduras, today expressed disappointment on a settlement by South Africa's Competition Commission (a body somewhat akin to the US Federal Trade Commission) with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) over GSK's AIDS drug pricing and policies in South Africa. AHF and South African AIDS activists had filed complaints with the Commission over GSK's AIDS drug pricing and polices. In October, the Commission found GSK, " ... guilty of charging excessively high prices for its anti-AIDS drugs and recommended that they be fined 10 percent of their annual sales in South Africa. The commission also said the companies [GSK & Boehringer Ingelheim] refused licenses to generic drug competitors" according to an October 18th New York Times article.
"As a party to this action, AIDS Healthcare Foundation is disappointed by the decision of the Competition Commission in that it does not hold GSK accountable for their past misdeeds. While we hope this settlement will lead to increased access to drugs in the future, it is difficult to see how lowering GSK's royalties is sufficient punishment for decades of overcharging for their drugs," said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President. "Even though one cannot place a monetary value on the hundreds of thousands of lives lost due to the greed of GSK, surely some financial price must be paid by the world's largest HIV/AIDS drug maker for their callous disregard for human life. And while we are pleased to see GSK's royalty rate slashed from 30 percent down to 5 percent, we believe the overall settlement is too little, too late. AHF and its South African partners will continue to pursue damages on behalf of patients and family members who have been harmed by GSK's actions in South Africa."
AHF was represented in its Commission complaint by the South African law firm Strauss Daly Inc., with attorney Musa Ntsibande serving as chief counsel. [Strauss Daly Inc., 2nd Floor, East Coast Radio House, 313/315 Umhlanga Rocks Drive, Umhlanga, South Africa (031) 570-5600]
SOURCE AIDS Healthcare Foundation
031210
PR031222
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