Karnataka - Bangalore   

Pharmaceutical firm draws flak

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Health activists along with HIV positive persons and non-governmental organisations held a protest here on Thursday in front of the Bangalore office of Abbott Laboratories, the U.S. pharmaceutical, for denying an anti-retroviral drug to HIV/AIDS patients in Thailand.

They have come together under the banner of Affordable Medicine Treatment Campaign to show their solidarity with health activists around who held similar protests against the company.

Organisations such as Milana, Samraksha, Action Aid, Lawyer's Collective HIV/AIDS unit among others joined in the protest.

The Thai Government issued compulsory licence on lopinavir+ritonavir (generic name Kaletra) for the procurement of affordable generic drugs to protect the health interests of its people. The Thai Government's actions were in compliance with national and international legal provisions, according to the activists.

In retaliation of the compulsory licence on the drug, Abbott Laboratories had withdrawn registration applications in Thailand for seven of its medicines. This simply meant that the company was withholding these medicines from the Thai market.

"These are life saving drugs that are necessary for HIV/AIDS patients. But the medicines are so expensive that they are not affordable to the common man.

"So the Government made licence compulsory so that everyone has access to the drugs.

"Our protest is to say that all anti-retroviral drugs should be available to HIV positive persons," said Asha Ramaiah, general secretary of Karnataka Network of Positive People (KNP+)

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