LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A group of committed AIDS activists and advocates are expected to participate in a protest and “die-in” hosted by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) tomorrow, Wednesday, August 17th at 12:00 noon near the New Brunswick headquarters of Johnson & Johnson to protest the company’s pricing of its HIV/AIDS medications. The protestors will be carrying banners and handmade signs with the message: “J&J, do the right thing!” while wearing skeleton masks. Dressed in funeral-black they will carry a 4 ft. X 2 ½ ft. coffin in memory of those who have died of AIDS while on AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waitlists.
The protest and “die-in” will be held near J&J’s New Brunswick headquarters at the corner of George and Albany Streets in light of the severe crisis facing the nation’s ADAPs, a network of federal and state funded programs that provide life-saving HIV treatments to low income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS nationwide. The advocates’ goal is to raise public awareness and educate community members—including J&J employees—regarding the steep prices that J&J’s Tibotec Pharmaceuticals charges government programs like ADAP for its popular HIV/AIDS drug, Prezista (darunavir)—currently over $7,500 per patient, per year for ADAP.
WHAT: | AIDS DRUG PRICING PROTEST & ‘DIE IN’ at Johnson & Johnson | |
12:00 noon Eastern Time—outside J&J’s New Brunswick, NJ headquarters |
||
WHEN: | WEDNESDAY, Aug 17th 2011 12:00 noon Eastern Time | |
WHERE: | outside | |
Johnson & Johnson Headquarters (owners of Tibotec Pharmaceuticals) |
||
1 Johnson & Johnson Plaza (cross streets: George & Albany Sts.) | ||
New Brunswick, NJ 08901 | ||
CONTACTS: |
Jessica Reinhart, AHF Grassroots Community Manager (323) 203-6146 cell |
|
“Johnson & Johnson is one of the most well known, well respected brands in all America. Its company credo states, ‘we believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. We must constantly strive to reduce our costs in order to maintain reasonable prices.’ Today, thanks to the high price of AIDS drugs like J&J’s Prezista, assistance programs like ADAP can no longer afford to help those who need access to lifesaving AIDS medicines,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President. “ADAP is the payer of last resort for thousands of people with AIDS who cannot otherwise afford their medicines. Given that Johnson & Johnson sells this drug ‘at cost’ for a few hundred dollars per year in developing countries, it can lower prices significantly and still make a huge profit, yet it has not. To help end this crisis, Johnson & Johnson must honor its credo and fulfill its pledge to patients by immediately lowering prices for ADAP—thousands of lives are at risk.”
“We felt it important to bring the message about Johnson & Johnson’s high price for Prezista directly to company employees in Johnson & Johnson’s hometown,” said Timothy Boyd, Policy Research Coordinator for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Many J&J employees will pass our ‘Do the Right Thing!’ signs and placards as they arrive for work. Employees and the public deserve know about the company’s pricing and policies on its AIDS medications.”
As of August 11th over 9,200 low-income AIDS patients in 12 states have been placed on waiting lists to access lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications through the nation’s network of ADAPs. However, several states have also recently capped further enrollment in their ADAPs or are sharply reducing eligibility for their programs based on a percentage of Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income (in some cases cutting the FPL-eligible income from 400% to 200%), effectively denying needy patients access to medications. But because program enrollment is officially capped—or eligibility eliminated entirely—these additional patients are never formally added to a state’s ADAP waiting list roster.
Background on ADAP
With state budgets stretched thin and increasing numbers of unemployed workers without health insurance, many states have been forced to cap enrollment in their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. Currently, there are over 9,200 individuals on waiting lists to receive lifesaving AIDS medications in thirteen states. Hundreds of patients in need are being added to the waiting list each week. In addition, thousands more Americans living with HIV/AIDS have been dropped from the program or made ineligible to receive medications through ADAP due to stricter eligibility requirements.
Nationwide, ADAPs serve over 165,000 people, accounting for one third of people on AIDS treatment in the U.S. Unfortunately, the need for these programs expands every year, as more and more people become infected and diagnosed with HIV/AIDS; each year thousands of newly diagnosed HIV patients turn to ADAPs because they cannot afford their medicines.
“The nation’s network of AIDS Drug Assistance Programs face desperate circumstances because of high prices for drugs like Prezista,” said Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Senior Director of Public Health Division for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “AHF is willing to work in partnership with Johnson and Johnson’s Tibotec Pharmaceuticals and the other AIDS drug companies toward solutions for ADAP and to create and foster dialogue with the community, but we will not rest and never stop if companies continue to pursue pricing and policies that conflict with the greater good and health and wellbeing of the public.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and services to more than 169,000 individuals in 27 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean the Asia/Pacific region and Eastern Europe. www.aidshealth.org