Today, Act Up-Paris and Health GAP organized a die-in around Bristol Myers Squibb’s booth. We offered toys so that BMS can give them to children they sentence to hospital.
BMS stopped the distribution of the 100 mg paediatric formulation of efavirenz, known in some countries as Sustiva. Though, this drug is the most suited for paediatric use.
No relevant reasons were given to the activists and the doctors, except that the volume of prescription does not allow adequate quality levels. The truth is, no inventory of the actual prescriptions of efavirenz 100mg had been carried out prior to the decision and no impact study on other efavirenz formulations have been realized.
BMS’s stockholders sacrifice children because they think the 100 mg formulation is not profitable enough.
The activists stand up at the beginning of the speeches, shouting « Save the children’s lives, not your pharma profits !». One activist took the microphone and explained the reasons of the action, asking the audience to leave the room or to sign in an open letter.
We demand that BMS’s leaders meet us before tomorrow, that they reconsider their position and announces during the conference, and that they withdraw their criminal decision.
The pharma industry, even if not present in the exhibition hall, must understand that they cannot act so unethically toward the PLWAs : Roche, for instance, that has announced it stopped the research against HIV, must reconsider its position too.
