Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Bay Area Reporter - Friday, May 14, 1999
Bob Roehr
"We cannot allow AIDS to wipe out our hope for tomorrow."
Mnguni was at a Thursday, May 6 news conference in Washington called by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to announce "Secure the Future," the pharmaceutical company's commitment of $100 million over five years to fight AIDS in Africa. The program will focus on South Africa and four smaller adjoining nations.
An estimated 3.5 million people in these countries are living with HIV. The rate of infection can be as high as 25 percent of all adults. That contrasts with the United States which has five times the population but only an estimated 750,000 people infected with HIV.
Charles Heimbold, Jr., the chief operating officer of BMS, invited others to join in this public-private partnership "extending and enhancing the lives of women and children with HIV/AIDS." It will fund grants for medical research appropriate for Africa and "improve patient education and community support."
The Moorehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston will help train medical professionals through a series of exchange programs.
BMS manufactures ddI (Videx), d4T (Zerit), and hydroxyurea used in the treatment of HIV. It is the third largest pharmaceutical company in the United States with first quarter profits of $1.07 billion, up 15 percent over last year.
Its expanded access programs provided drugs to 3,300 PWAs in 1998. The wholesale value of those drugs was approximately $10 million. By contrast, the New York Times reported that Heimbold received a total of $146 million in compensation last year.
American AIDS advocates praised the company's Africa initiative. But there also was dissension.
"This is a cynical public relations ploy by a company that is fighting to maintain its monopolies on government-funded HIV drugs," charged James Love, director of the Ralph Nader-affiliated Consumer Project on Technology. The company's AIDS drugs are made under patents held by the NIH and Yale University.
The World Health Assembly meets in May to debate compulsory licensing of essential medicines in poor countries. Heimbold opposed the idea, saying, "Compulsory licensing ends research and ends all hope for future advances based on research."
Eric Sawyer, representing POZ magazine and with ACT UP/New York, pressed Heimbold on the issue. "We've been informed by representatives of the Thai and South African governments that your company has engaged in lawsuits against those governments and against those generic drug companies" to prevent local production of equivalent drugs that would be affordable within those nations.
"I think where there is a fire, the worst thing to do is get into a big battle with the fire department," Heimbold said. "And the fire department, in the case of AIDS, are the pharmaceutical companies. They are the ones who are producing the medicines."
"Will you drop the lawsuit against the companies in Thailand and South Africa that have been trying to produce generic versions of ddI?" asked Sawyer. "Or licensing them to produce it for you at a more affordable price?"
"We don't comment on any pending litigation," Heimbold replied.
In April, Reuters reported that Vice President Al Gore has strong-armed the South African government with the threat of trade sanctions and benefits, on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.
Nader has charged that Gore is more interested in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry than he is with people getting access to life-saving drugs.
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