April, 2003 Price Cut for AZT, 3TC and Combivir

• April 28, 2003. GSK press release. GlaxoSmithKline again reduces its not-for-profit price of HIV/AIDS medicines for the developing world.
• April 28, 2003. Brook Baker for Health GAP. The Real Politics of GSK's Price Cut.
• April 28, 2003. AIDS Healthcare Foundation press release. Anatomy of AIDS Advocates' Victory.
• April 28, 2003. California Public Employees' Retirement System's (CalPERS) press release. CalPERS Commends GlaxoSmithKline's Move to Cut Price of AIDS Drugs.
• News Stories
  • April 28, 2003. Theresa Agovino for the Associated Press. GlaxoSmithKline Lowers AIDS Drugs Prices.
  • April 28, 2003. Reuters. Glaxo Halves Price of AIDS Drug for Poor.
  • April 28, 2003. Voice of America. AIDS Drug Price Cut in Least Developed Countries.
  • April 28, 2003. South African Press Association. Firm Slashes AIDS Drug Prices
  • April 28, 2003. South African Press Association. TAC says price drop not enough.
  • April 28, 2003. Gautam Naik for the Wall Street Journal. Glaxo to Further Cut Price of AIDS Drug Used in Africa.
  • April 28, 2003. Reed Abelson for the New York Times. Glaxo Will Further Cut Prices of AIDS Drugs to Poor Nations.
  • April 28, 2003. Linda Loyd for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Glaxo plans AIDS-drug price cuts in poor nations.
  • April 28, 2003. Sarah Boseley and Tim Radford for the Guardian. Glaxo cuts price of Aids drugs in poor countries.

• April 15, 2003. California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Letter to Jean-Pierre Garnier.
• News stories
  • April 16, 2003. Keith Alcorn for AidsMap.com. Largest US pension fund tells Glaxo: license HIV drugs to poorest nations.
  • April 15, 2003. Goeff Dyer for the Financial Times. GSK urged to evaluate Aids drug licensing deals.
  • March 26, 2003. Tobias Webb for Ethical Corporation Magazine. Investors issue a wake-up call to the global pharmaceutical industry
  • March 24, 2003. Goeff Dyer for the Financial Times. Moral dilemma for pharmas.
  • March 23, 2003. Keith Alcorn for AidsMap.com. Investment funds tell drug companies to improve treatment access for poorest countries.

• GlaxoSmithKline Annnouncement of Results for the year ended 31st December 2000 in £ Sterling.
• GlaxoSmithKline Annual Report and form 20F This document contains figures on sales and expenditures, and breaks down sales by different geographic areas and different product types.

• GlaxoWellcome
  • Soft Money Donations in the 1999-2000 Election Cycle Source: Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
  • PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates in the 1999-2000 Election Cycle Source: Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
  • Lobbying Expenditures in 1998 Source: Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
• SmithKline Beecham
  • Soft Money Donations in the 1999-2000 Election Source: Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
  • PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates in the 1999-2000 Election Cycle Source: Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
  • Lobbying Expenditures in 1998 Source: Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org

• Zidovudine (AZT)
  • GlaxoWellcome's page on its prescription drugs Provides a brief medical definition and standard dosages for treatments. (For AZT, look up its brand-name, Retrovir.)
  • 1989 Letter to the Editor of the New York Times by NIH scientists concerning the invention of AZT. Contains history of the US government's involvement in the invention of AZT.
  • CP Tech page on the government's role in the development of HIV/AIDS drugs. Further information on the patent rights for AZT and other medicines.
• Abacavir (Ziagen)
  • GlaxoWellcome holds two US patents on Abacavir: Patent #5,034,394 and Patent #5,089,500.
  • The University of Minnesota sued GlaxoWellcome over the patent rights and forced a settlement. Here is the University's fact sheet on the settlement.
  • Letter from Oxfam USA to the University of Minnesota dated March 28, 2001, urging the school to permit a third party to produce a low-cost generic version of Ziagen.
  • CPT page on the government's role in the development of HIV/AIDS drugs.
• Paxil
  • February 5, 2003. Reed Abelson for the New York Times. Court Battle over Paxil.
  • January 16, 2003. Ben Hirschler for Reuters. Glaxo Faces Key Paxil Court Case.
  • June 24, 2001. Charles Ornstein for the Dallas Morning News. Law keeps generics in limbo.
  • January 26, 2001. Melody Peterson in the New York Times. Ruling on Papers Favors Glaxo
  • December 7, 2000. Melody Petersen in the New York Times. U.S. Looking at SmithKline Effort to BlockGeneric Drug
  • December 7, 2000. Jerry Guidera in the Dow Jones Newswire. FTC Investigating SmithKline's Top-Selling Paxil

• PATENT AND EXCLUSIVITY DATA FOR EVERY DRUG PRODUCED BY GLAXOSMITHKLINE. Table prepared by Bruce Pokras. This information is also available in the FDA Orange Book.

• India
  • January 8, 2002. Mathew and Sanjeev Sharma for the Economic Times. Glaxo Not to Launch New Products: Sykes.
• Ghana
  • GlaxoWellcome has moved to halt exportation of Duovir (generic combivir) by Cipla, a generic pharmaceutical company in India, into Ghana. Combivir is a drug which is a combination of AZT and 3TC. GlaxoWellcome claims it has exclusive rights to market these drugs in Ghana, citing four specific patents. According to Ghana's patent office, however, three of these patents were issued before Ghana allowed patent protection for pharmaceuticals, and therefore are invalid, and the fourth applies only to chrystalline 3TC, which is not included in Duovir.
    • February 19, 2001. Toby Kasper, posting to the Pharm-policy list. Glaxo's claims of patent protection on antiretrovirals in Ghana.
    • February 11, 2001. S. Whitaker. Medicines in Ghana Editorial in the Parmaceutical Journal Vol 266 No 7134. Also includes a response from GlaxoSmithKline.
    • August 10, 2000. Letter from GlaxoWellcome to CIPLA: Importation of Duovir into Ghana. Here is an html verison. Here is a bitmaped image.
    • September 22, 2000. Response to above letter from A. A. Thorton, attorney for Cipla.
    • News Stories
      • December 2, 2000, Sarah Boseley, in the Guardian (UK), Glaxo stops Africans buying cheap Aids drugs
      • December 1, 2000, Mark Schoofs, in The Wall Street Journal, Glaxo Attempts to Block Access To Generic AIDS Drugs in Ghana
      • December, 2000, Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman in the Multinational Monitor. Enemies of the Future: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2000.
      • November 9, 2000, Accra Mail, Glaxo Wellcome Stops AIDS Drug Import to Ghana
      • November 3, 2000, Gauri Kamath, in Economic Times, Cipla stops export to Ghana on Glaxo allegations
• Uganda
  In a dispute similar to that involving Ghana, GlaxoWellcome has moved to prevent Ciphla from exporting Duovir into Uganda.
  • GlaxoWellcome's December 3, 2000 press release announcing an agreement with the government of Uganda to lower HIV/AIDS medicine prices.
  • GlaxoWellcome's November 20, 2000 letter to Cipha concerning Duovir sales in Uganda.

The British non-proft organization Oxfam has targetted GlaxoSmithKline in their new campaign to lower medicine prices around the world.

• Cut the Cost Homepage.
• Index of news stories on the Cut the Cost Campaign.
• GlaxoSmithKline press release in response to a Guardian series on multinational drug firms, and specifically on Oxfam's campaign.

GSK Documents
• Malaria Donation Program
• June 11, 2001. GlaxoSmithKline report. Facing the Challenge: Our Contribution to Improving Healthcare in the Developing World.
• June 11, 2001. Press release. GlaxoSmithKline Reaffirms Committment to Fight Diseases of the Developing World.
News stories
• October 3, 2001. Melody Petersen and Milt Freudenheim for the New York Times. Drug Giant to Introduce Discount Plan for the Elderly
• October 3, 2001. Ben Hirschler for Reuters. Glaxo to discount drugs for U.S. elderly.
• June 12, 2001. John Greenwood in the National Post. GSK's AIDS Move Called Defensive.
• June 11, 2001. Rachel Zimmerman for the Wall Street Journal. GlaxoSmithKline Plans to Announce Cut In Prices for AIDS Drugs to Poor Countries.
• June 10, 2001. David Pilling for the Financial Times. GlaxoSmithKline to Extend Cheaper AIDS Drugs.
• April 8, 2001. Times of India. Glaxo refuses to cut HIV drug prices more than 90%
• February 26, 2001. Reuters. Glaxo promises cheap drugs for poor, more R&D
• Accelerating Access Initiative
  On May 11, 2000, GlaxoWellcome, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Roche entered into this initiative along with UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the UN Development Program. The goal is to improve access to HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries. Drug donations are negotiated on a country-by-country basis. To date, the program has succeeded in getting drugs donated for relatively small programs in a few countries.
  • UNAIDS page on Accelerating Access
  • Industry Collaborations in Partnerships to Combat the Spread of HIV/AIDS International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations page on "Four Efforts by Glaxo Wellcome."
  • July 10, 2002. Health and Development Networks. Why Is Accelerating Access So Slow?
  • December 28, 2000, Barton Gellman in the Washington Post. A Turning Point that Left Millions Behind.

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