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 Health & Beauty | May 2008 
'Shame on Merck': Drug Giant Blasted for Steep AIDS Drug Prices in Mexico
 AIDS Healthcare Foundation
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| | Newspaper Ads in New Jersey, New York’s Village Voice and the Washington Blade criticize Merck for charging Mexico six times more than other Latin American countries for its key AIDS drug, Stocrin. View AHF Print Ad, click HERE. | | |
As part of its ongoing campaign to lower drug prices and improve access to lifesaving AIDS treatments globally, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which operates three free treatment clinics in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Tuxtla Gutierrez) today unveiled a new print advertisement in an ongoing advocacy campaign criticizing drug giant Merck (known as Merck Sharp & Dohme in Mexico) for its steep AIDS drug pricing in Mexico and other so-called middle-income (MI) countries. The ad, headlined, ‘Shame on Merck,’ will first appear in today’s ‘Courier News,’ a respected Somerset County daily newspaper in New Jersey near Merck’s US corporate headquarters.
The advocacy ad blasts Merck for charging Mexico six times more than other Latin American countries for its key AIDS drug, Stocrin. Merck’s Stocrin (efavirenz, branded as Sustiva in the US), is a key component of many of the most effective antiretroviral AIDS drug therapy combinations. The ad, which will also run in several other print outlets over the next two months, highlights Merck’s inequitable AIDS drug pricing in Mexico as more that 20,000 leading AIDS doctors, scientists, researchers, activists and people living with HIV/AIDS prepare to attend the upcoming International AIDS Conference in Mexico City starting August 8th.
“Merck charges six times as much for Stocrin in Mexico as it does in other Latin American and middle-income countries, a heartless business calculation that effectively makes this drug all but out of reach for nearly all those living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President. “Through this ad, which follows previous ads in the campaign and correspondence directly with the company, we want to make policy makers and the public-at-large—including Merck’s employees and New Jersey neighbors—aware of the striking inequity in Merck’s corporate policies regarding its pricing of Stocrin in Mexico. We also want to renew our call upon Merck executives to change the company’s pricing and access policies, particularly compared to how they price the very same drug in most other Latin American countries.”
After appearing in the ‘Courier News’ today, the AHF ‘Shame on Merck,’ advocacy ad is expected to run in New York’s ‘Village Voice,’ New Jersey’s ‘Hunterdon County Democrat,’ and the ‘Washington Blade,’ a leading national gay and lesbian weekly newspaper published each Friday in Washington, DC.
Over the past year AHF published other related ads in this drug pricing campaign that focused on Merck and the drug company, Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS). One ad, headlined, “AIDS Drug Prices to Die For,” targeted each company for their AIDS drug pricing in Mexico. That campaign ran in select publications in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and in Mexico City, in La Jornada, one of the principal daily newspapers in Mexico.
As AIDS Healthcare Foundation launches its latest “AIDS Drug Prices to Die For’ print ad in La Jornada this week, it will also host a community forum on AIDS drug pricing on June 5th in Mexico City for policy makers, AIDS advocates, government officials and AIDS service organizations to educate and inform the public and key decision-makers about the widely-varying—and seemingly-arbitrary—pricing policies in Mexico of many major pharmaceutical companies.
Certain world bodies classify Mexico as a middle-income country using Gross National Income (GNI) as its measure. The country has a per capita income of roughly US $7,310; however, AIDS drug treatments that can cost as little as US$150 in what are designated least-developed or low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere (e.g. Uganda, Malawi) can cost as much as US$8,000 in Mexico—or about 9.5% more than and average person’s income, making these lifesaving AIDS regimens all but unaffordable to the majority in need there.
This is in part because middle-income countries are usually not proffered the same drug price reductions as low-income countries. However, when it comes to country classification, higher overall average income—middle-income versus low-income—does not necessarily indicate less poverty, and GNI, which divides a country's total income by its total population to arrive at an estimate of average individual incomes, often obscures the fact that the majority of a country's citizens may live in poverty.
“Merck has already proven willing to help certain HIV/AIDS patients in need elsewhere in the world through participation in laudable programs like the UN’s ACCESS Program,” said Patricia Campos, M.D., AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Latin America Bureau Chief, who is based in Mexico. “Many patients’ lives here in Mexico depend on access to drugs such as Stocrin that are available elsewhere at a much lower cost. We strongly urge Merck to immediately set access prices for its drug Stocrin in Mexico equal to the lowest available price in other middle-income countries to ensure that people in need in Mexico are not priced out of such potential lifesaving AIDS treatments.”
Following is the full text of AHF’s ‘Shame on Merck’ advertisement:
Shame on Merck
Merck charges Mexico more than 6 times more than other Latin American countries for Strocrin and hasn’t kept its promise to distribute Atripla, the 3-in-1 AIDS treatment that could help save countless lives in Mexico.
• As Merck and other drug companies from around the world come to Mexico City for the 2008 International AIDS Conference, prices for lifesaving AIDS drugs remain too expensive for most people living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico.
• It has been nearly 2 years since Merck announced its agreement with Gilead to distribute Atripla in Mexico for $1,032 per patient annually. Today, Mexicans are forced to pay over $4,300 for the same three medicines separately.
• Merck’s Stocrin (efavirenz) is the backbone of many standard antiretroviral drug regimens. AIDS advocates question why Stocrin costs approximately $140 USD in Honduras, yet Merck charges $893 USD for Stocrin in Mexico. Advocates and HIV/AIDS patients insist Merck must match its lowest available price of Stocrin in other Latin American countries in Mexico as well.
• AIDS Healthcare Foundation cannot remain silent while Merck’s drug pricing and actions in Mexico prevent access to this lifesaving treatment for thousands of people in need.
In Latin America, AIDS Healthcare Foundation currently provides free anti-retroviral treatment to people in need through its clinics in Mexico (in Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Tutxla Gutierriez, La Paz) and in Guatemala (Quetzaltenango).
About AHF: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 70,000 individuals in 22 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Visit the website HERE. |
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