AIDS Group Protests DuPont's Pricing Of New Drug
Dow Jones Newswires
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)--For some time, Eric
Sawyer has been taking Sustiva as part of DuPont
Pharmaceutical's clinical trials of the AIDS drug. As a
result, he said, his level of HIV infection is virtually
undetectable.
That's the good news.
The bad news is, now that Sustiva has been approved
for sale by the federal Food and Drug Administration,
many HIV-infected people may be unable to afford it in
addition to other drugs they are taking, an AIDS activist
group said Thursday.
"Pricing it between $4,000 and $5,000 for this particular
drug would make my drug therapy cost about $30,000 a
year," said Sawyer, 44, who travelled from New York
to participate in Act Up Philadelphia's protest outside
DuPont Co. (DD) headquarters.
The FDA approved Sustiva last week. The drug has to
be taken in conjunction with others currently in use.
Demanding the company slash the drug's price, the
group dumped empty pill bottles from a black coffin
onto the sidewalk to emphasize its points.
Walking en masse to the headquarters and carrying a
black banner that said, "DuPont Pharma: Greed=Death,"
about 120 protesters chanted, "We die, they make
money."
DuPont issued only a brief statement, which reiterated
the company's belief that Sustiva - also known as
efavirenz - is "fair and reasonable."
"Sustiva is priced in the middle of the range for currently
marketed antiretrovirals to treat HIV/AIDS," said the
statement. "DuPont Pharmaceuticals had made every
effort to assure that the price of Sustiva will not impact
patients' access to the drug."
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