{"id":6609,"date":"2002-07-11T19:06:20","date_gmt":"2002-07-11T18:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moomango.co.uk\/htb\/?p=6609"},"modified":"2014-06-05T11:12:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T11:12:25","slug":"us-foundation-bars-glaxosmithkline-representatives-over-aids-drug-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/6609","title":{"rendered":"US foundation bars GlaxoSmithKline representatives over AIDS drug pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Europe\u2019s biggest drug maker, was embroiled in a fresh row over the cost of AIDS medicines after a US group barred GSK sales representatives from its clinics.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said the British-based company, the world\u2019s largest supplier of antiretroviral drugs, was charging twice as much for its drugs in the developing world as other pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGlaxo\u2019s actions have put it outside the bounds of corporate responsibility,\u201d Michael Weinstein, president of the largest provider of specialised HIV medical care in the United States, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>GSK has been at the centre of controversy over the cost of AIDS drugs since taking a leading role in a landmark court case last year to prevent South Africa from importing cut-price medicines. The suit was ultimately abandoned by GSK and 38 other firms.<\/p>\n<p>AHF said GSK\u2019s combination therapy products could slash the mortality rate from AIDS in developing countries but the price being charged was far too high, at almost $2000 per patient per year. It called for the cost to be reduced to $500.<\/p>\n<p>GSK said it had led the way in cutting AIDS drug prices in Africa in 1997, adding it was no longer making a profit on selling AIDS medicines in the world\u2019s least-developed countries.<\/p>\n<p>But the AHF argued the company could afford to do more to bring down costs, especially since its two leading AIDS drugs\u2014Combivir (lamivudine\/zidovudine) and Trizivir (lamivudine\/zidovudine\/abacavir)\u2014were simply reformulations of existing products that did not require costly research and development.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to its work in the US, AHF operates two free AIDS treatment clinics in South Africa and Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are disappointed that attempts to partner with AHF have broken down and that AHF has reacted in this way as a result,\u201d GSK spokesman Alan Chandler said.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Reuters Health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Europe\u2019s biggest drug maker, was embroiled in a fresh row over the cost of AIDS medicines after a US group barred GSK sales representatives from its clinics. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said the British-based company, the world\u2019s largest &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-treatment-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}