At the 9th annual AIDS conference organized by the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) on the 25th – 29th of October 2003 in Varsovie, two AIDS activist groups, the TRT 5 and the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) opted to widely distribute the informational poster «HIV-Positive People Boehringer Ingelheim is working for you !» in order to expose the corrupt policies of pharmaceutical laboratories.
Today thousands of HIV positive individuals are failing all available HIV treatments. They are in an urgent need for new treatment options.
Boehringer Ingelheim has developed a new protease inhibitor (PI), tipranavir/r which can potentially benefit HIV+ people in need of salvage therapy.
In September 2003, after months of pressure by HIV/AIDS NGOs, Boehringer Ingelheim has finally opened a worldwide compassionate access programme with only 600 treatments available monthly until mid-2004.
This so-called access programme is a true insult thrown in the faces of HIV + people and will in no way cover the needs of the thousands of patients waiting for tipranavir/r.
Furthermore, for this compassionate access programme Boehringer Ingelheim is forbidding the concomitant use of another protease inhibitor with tipranavir/r in the salvage regimens. This arbitrary decision goes against the latest scientific evidence that has shown that the combination of tipranavir/r with another PI is more potent than the use of tipranavir/r alone (the independent committee of the Boehringer Ingelheim 1182.51 trial recommended in July 2003 that the arm with tipranavir/r as the only PI be terminated and all patients be switched to a combination of tipranavir/r + another PI)
EATG and TRT-5 demand that :
– Boehringer Ingelheim’s compassionate access programme be large enough to respond to the needs of the thousands of patients with no other treatment options
– Boehringer Ingelheim respects the recommendation of the 1182.51 trial independent committee
Boehringer Ingelheim is digging the graves of very sick HIV+ patients who could benefit from a new treatment.
