Drug Giant BMS "rethinks" AIDS drugs for kids

You know the AIDS Conference has started when you hear the chants of activists resonate through the halls as they exit a conference room. So I'm happy to say - the AIDS Conference has officially started!

Activists have always played an important (and vocal) role at AIDS Conferences. This year is no exception. Today, more than a dozen activists, organized by ACT UP Paris, took the stage at a Bristol-Myers Squibb Symposium entitled "Rethinking Initiation of HAART" to call attention to the fact that BMS is "rethinking" production of a key HIV medication for children.

Accoring to TRT-5, the European AIDS Treatment Group and Sidaction, BMS stated in March 2008 that the company would stop the distribution of the 100mg pediatric capsule formulation of Sustiva/Stocrin (efavirez). Several countries are already experiencing stock-outs.

This medication, at the 100mg dosage level, works well in children, and is especially imporant considering that there are very few effective medications for children. Children who previously were taking 100mg efavirenz will have to change up their regimens, or will have to take more or larger pills (both of which are difficult for children in particular).

In a statement, TRT-5, EATG and Sidaction stated that they "condemn this interruption of availability of Sustiva 100mg and demand that BMS reconsider its decision which constitutes a regression in the quality of car for paediatric HIV infection and puts into peril the treatment of many HIV infected patients." ACT UP Paris echoed this statement when they spoke briefly from the microphone at the BMS Symposium.

Activism focusing on drug companies is not new at International AIDS Conferences. Notably, in 2006, at the AIDS Conference in Toronto, activists were angry with Abbott for retaliating against Thailand after the Thai government broke a patent on Abbott's key AIDS drug, Kaletra. Abbott had vacated their prime real estate that they rented in the Exhibition Hall, and activists took the space over and made it their own to sell t-shirts and hold meetings. By the end of the Conference, activists went on a conference site-wide search for the drug company. Abbott had not been seen in sessions or in the Exhibition Hall for days, perhaps hiding for fear of being called out by activists for their shameful policies on pricing, access, and patent enforcement.

Despite major progress in increasing the number of people on treatment worldwide (now more than three million), millions of people are still going without life-saving medication. Drug compnay policy has worked to limit access in countries mainly by enforcing patents on medication and thus squashing generic competition. According to activists, the only sure way to reduce the cost of medicine is to allow for generic competition. And reducing the cost of medicine is a key way to increase access and save lives.

Activists already are talking about other drug companies that deserve to be targeted at the 17th AIDS Conference. Will they choose GlaxoSmithKline, for their shameful pricing and patent enforcement in China which means thousands of people with HIV must pay high prices or go without their medication? Or will they focus on the perenial bad guy, Abbott, for their shameful policies around pricing and access to lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra)? Or will it be another of the big companies? Whomever is targeted, we can expect that activists will use this conference to call attention to the failures of drug companies to work towards universal access to HIV treatment worldwide.