AIDS Healthcare Foundation Announces Investment Opinion: GSK -- AIDS Drug Developer or Simply Marketer of Others' Research & Development?Business Editors NOTE TO EDITORS: The following is an investment opinion issued by AIDS Healthcare Foundation The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a non profit, Los Angeles-based AIDS treatment and advocacy center. Their official founding pledge is to "provide cutting-edge medicine and advocacy, regardless of ability to pay. LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2003 -- GSK GSK GlaxoSmithKline plc (pharmaceutical company) GSK Glycogen Synthase Kinase GSK Gruppentraining Sozialer Kompetenzen (Germany) GSK Greenland Shark (FAO fish species code) Announces Agreement for "Commercialisation" for ONO-4128, a New Cellular Chemocine Receptor (CCR5) Antagonist from Japanese Drug Company Ono. British Pharmaceutical Company Continues 'Patent Profiteering' from Other Scientists' R & D British multi-national pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), which controls over 40% of the worldwide market for AIDS medications, today announced that it had entered into an agreement with the Japanese firm Ono for "commercialisation" of the new AIDS drug, ONO-4128, a new cellular chemocine receptor (CCR5) antagonist developed in Japan by Ono scientists. The drug is currently in pre-clinical development for use against HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. . "This move cements Glaxo's growing reputation among many AIDS advocates and industry analysts of GSK's increasing role as merely an AIDS drug marketer rather than a company deeply committed to its own research and development of new life-saving AIDS medications," said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation president. "More and more, GSK is profiteering prof·it·eer n. One who makes excessive profits on goods in short supply. intr.v. prof·it·eered, prof·it·eer·ing, prof·it·eers To make excessive profits on goods in short supply. handsomely on other scientists' work while people throughout the world who desperately need these drugs can't afford them." Glaxo currently holds patents on several AIDS drugs it did not invent or develop including: AZT AZT or zidovudine (zīdō`vy  dēn'), drug used to treat patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS; also called (retrovir) which was developed at the Michigan Cancer Institute in the early 1960s as a possible cancer-fighting drug and identified as effective against HIV by NIH "Not invented here." See digispeak. NIH - The United States National Institutes of Health. scientists in the mid 1980s; Abacavir (Ziagen), which was developed at the University of Minnesota (body, education) University of Minnesota - The home of Gopher. http://umn.edu/. Address: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. ; and 3TC (lamivudine), which was developed at Emory University. According to a press release posted on their website, GSK will, under the terms of the agreement, "...have exclusive worldwide development, manufacturing and commercialisation rights for ONO-4128 and certain associated compounds. Ono will receive an up-front payment and clinical and regulatory milestone payments related to the progress of ONO-4128 and associated compounds for treatment of HIV or other diseases, as well as royalties based on total worldwide annual net sales." According to a GSK statement, the CCR5 receptor is believed to be the predominant co-receptor used by HIV in the early and middle stages of infection. Blocking the CCR5 receptor with an antagonist may offer a novel mechanism for inhibiting HIV infection. GSK plans to initiate Phase I clinical studies in the USA in the first half of 2003. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF AHF antihemophilic factor (coagulation factor VIII). AHF abbr. antihemophilic factor AHF, n the abbreviation for antihemophilic factor. See also factor VIII. ) is the largest specialized provider of HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome medical care in the United States. AHF serves thousands of patients in California, New York and Florida regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. In addition, AHF currently operates two free AIDS treatment clinics in Africa: the Ithembalabantu (Zulu for "people's hope") Clinic in KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa & the Uganda Cares Healthcare Center in Masaka, Uganda. www.aidshealth.org. |
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