Today July 13 2007, The Thai Network of People living with HIV/AIDS and Act
Up-Paris have invited Abbott Laboratories CEO Miles White to a conciliation
meeting with a representative of the Thai government, during the
International AIDS Conference in Sydney, on July 23 2007. This meeting aims
to offer the drug company an opportunity to get out of the crisis in which
it has dug itself since announcing a blockade of lifesaving medicines
against the Thais, followed by a lawsuit against people with HIV for
organizing an internet protest.
On February 14, Abbott announced that, until the Thai government grants
Abbott a long-term monopoly on sales of the lifesaving HIV medicine Aluvia,
Abbott was effecting an immediate blockade on the distribution of this
lifesaving drug to all HIV/AIDS patients in Thailand.
On May 23, Abbott Laboratories, a 22.5 billion dollar company, announced
having hired the world’s biggest law firm, Baker & McKenzie, to sue the HIV
patient group Act Up-Paris, for having organized an international internet
demonstration on the website of Abbott, in protest against the drug
company’s blockade of lifesaving medication in Thailand.
As financial and mass media have reported on the disastrous impact that the
Abbott blockade is having on the lives of impoverished Thais struggling with
the AIDS virus (see Reuters story of May 22), these actions by Abbott
Laboratories have snowballed into a public relations crisis which is further
staining the reputation of the entire patent-based pharmaceutical industry
(see comments by GlaxoSmithKline in Wall Street Journal of June 18).
Act Up-Paris has tried discussing the need for the immediate removal of the
Abbott blockade against Thai patients with Abbott Public Relations Director
Dirk Van Eeden, only to come to the conclusion that Mr Van Eeden is already
very well aware of the public relations disaster which these decisions are
proving to be for Abbott, and that only CEO Miles White himself has the
authority to overrule his own decision to withhold lifesaving HIV medicine
from sick HIV/AIDS patients in Thailand.
That is why the Thai Network of People living with HIV/AIDS and Act Up-Paris
are kindly calling upon the Abbott CEO to publicly confirm his willingness
to participate in person in a conciliation meeting with a representative of
the Thai government on July 23rd at the International AIDS Conference in
Sydney, in order to finally arrive at a dignified resolution of this crisis
which is an embarrassment to all stakeholders in the global fight against
AIDS.
