Pressure by Calpers spurs cut in prices for some AIDS drugs. (Health Care).AIDS Healthcare Foundation's worldwide legal battle to get GlaxoSmithKline Plc to lower prices on its AIDS drugs is showing signs of partial success. Last week, the British company said it would cut prices for its AIDS cocktail Combivir by 47 percent in 63 developing countries. Coinbivir will now cost those patients 90 cents a day. The change came after the California Public Employees Retirement System, a large holder of Glaxo stock, joined the foundation in calling for lower prices. "Calpers is very influential in the investment community," said Michael Weinstein Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein is an attorney, businessman and former Air Force officer. He is founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and author of With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military , who leads the L.A.-based foundation. In response, the foundation has dropped a lawsuit in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Superior Court but is pursuing two other legal actions. It also wants Glaxo to drop its domestic AIDS drug prices and to allow generic drug generic drug, a drug sold or prescribed under the nonproprietary name of its active ingredients or under a generally descriptive name rather than under a brand or trade name. companies to manufacture the drugs even more cheaply in the developing world. Its original set of claims, alleging that Glaxo fraudulently obtained the patents to gain a monopoly in the U.S. on the anti-retroviral drug AZT AZT or zidovudine (zīdō`vy  dēn'), drug used to treat patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS; also called , was dismissed in March by a federal judge in the Central District of California. In mid-April, Ronald Katz, a partner at Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol representing the foundation, filed an amended complaint amended complaint n. what results when the party suing (plaintiff or petitioner) changes the complaint he/she has filed. It must be in writing, and can be done before the complaint is served on any defendant, by agreement between the parties (usually their lawyers), accusing Glaxo of violating the 1984 BayhDole Act. The act is designed to "promote the commercialization and public availability of inventions made in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. " and funded in part by the government, according to the amended complaint. Nancy Pekarek, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said courts have already upheld the company's AZT patents in the mid-1990s. "These things have all been decided already and therefore, we do not see this as a valid lawsuit," Pekarek said. The foundation has also gone to South Africa's "competition commission in an effort to force Glaxo to license its AIDS drugs for free in the developing world to generic manufacturers. "When people ask me what does this mean, a week from now a person on South Africa can buy this drug for half the price it was selling at. Maybe they can eke this out at this price but they couldn't possibly afford it at the higher price," Weinstein said. |
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