From: madlansacay@mary.fordham.edu (MADLANSACAY, NOEL)
Newsgroups: hiv.oz-aids-marc
Subject: BOYCOTT ASTRA
Date: 3 Aug 92 16:53:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: mary.3AUG199212533506
Organization: Fordham University
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 1992
Contact:                           Jason Childers (212) 727-0939
                                   David Rephun   (212) 929-6143

          AIDS ACTIVISTS LAUNCH PHARMACEUTICAL BOYCOTT

NEW YORK CITY --- Two leading AIDS activist groups announced a
boycott of products manufactured by Astra Pharmaceutical
Products, Inc. The boycott, organized by the AIDS Coalition To
Unleash Power (ACT UP)/New York and the Treatment Action Group
(TAG), will protest the high pricing of Foscavir, a drug used to
treat disease caused by Cytomegalovirus (CMV).  CMV is a leading
cause of blindness, wasting and death in people with AIDS.

Activists are demanding that Astra halve the cost of Foscavir to
approximately $10,000/year.  Astra originally estimated that one
year of treatment with Foscavir would cost $21,5000, however the
company now concedes that $24,000+ a year wholesale is a more
likely and accurate figure.  Activists say that research data
shows the actual wholesale price to be closer to $30,000 per
year.  While Ganciclovir (Cytovene), manufactured by Syntex, is
also approved for treatment of CMV disease, up to 40% of patients
cannot tolerate Ganciclovir, or develop resistance during long-
term therapy.

TAG member Jason Childers said, "Astra is giving people with AIDS
a brutal choice:  your money or your sight.  Pharmaceutical
price-gouging makes insurers less willing to grant policies to
people with AIDS, and drives up the cost of Medicaid.  More than
40% of people with AIDS are receiving Medicaid -- the high cost
of Foscavir is paid by the American taxpayer."

Childers also pointed out that the development of Foscavir for
treatment of CMV was heavily subsidized by the US Government
through the National Institutes of Health.

The boycott will encourage dentists and physicians to replace the
brand-name anaesthetic Xylocaine, one of Astra's largest profit-
making products, with Lidocaine HCl, a generic version that is
manufactured by numerous companies.                    

Jack Rosenberg, DDS, a New York City dentist, said, "The high
price of pharmaceutical products, of which Foscavir is a
particularly egregious example, is a major contributor to our 
health care crisis.  The substitution of lidocaine HCl for
Xylocaine is an easy way to protest Astra's price-gouging.  I
strongly encourage health care providers to participate in this
boycott, and to demand that Astra lower the price of Foscavir." 
Dr. Rosenberg is a founder and past President of the Manhattan
Dental Guild, a nation-wide association of Gay and Lesbian
Dentists.

New Jersey Republican State Senator Gerald Cardinale, DDS, also a
practicing dentist, said, "we are experiencing a crisis in
health-care financing.  Our citizens are increasingly unable to
afford private insurance, and the high costs of Medicaid programs
are crippling our tax base.  As costs continue to escalate,
Astra's pricing of Foscavir seems particularly irresponsible.  If
this boycott can reduce the price of Foscavir, then ACT UP and
TAG will have made an enormous contribution to the American
taxpayer."

The activist groups are developing a list of endorsing
organizations.  Already, the boycott has been endorsed by AIDS
Action Baltimore, the AIDS Action Council, the AIDS Trust of
Maryland, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New
York Physicians for Human Rights, San Francisco's Project Inform,
and the People With Aids Health Group in New York City.

ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in
anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. 
Currently, there are more than 45 ACT UP groups around the
country and internationally, including London, Paris, Sydney and
Amsterdam.

TAG fights to find a cure for AIDS and to ensure that all people
living with HIV receive the necessary treatment, care and
information they need to save their lives.  TAG focuses on the
AIDS research effort, both private and public, the drug
development process, and our nation's health care delivery
systems.  TAG is committed to working for and with all
communities affected by AIDS.
Newsgroups: biz.test