Posts
The US Congress has passed
legislation that caps FY2013 AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) funding,
prompting the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to urge Gilead Sciences and
other AIDS drug makers to lower ADAP HIV drug costs. AHF President Michael Weinstein
asserted that pharmaceutical companies have used ADAP funding increases to
launch “overpriced” new HIV medications and to give “million-dollar bonuses” to
chief executive officers (CEOs).
Tim Boyd, AHF’s director of domestic
policy, stated that Gilead CEO John Martin’s salary topped $54 million while
10,000 HIV-infected people were on ADAP waiting lists, and Gilead now plans to
increase Martin’s pay to $90 million. The congressional funding cap means ADAP
will not be able to provide treatment to 8,000 HIV-infected people on waiting
lists across the country.
The cap halts years of increased
congressional funding to keep pace with the rising cost of HIV drugs and longer
ADAP waiting lists. In 2011 alone, Congress added $48 million to ADAP funding
and supplemented ADAP with $30 million in “emergency funding” to provide HIV
medications to ADAP wait-listed patients. The National Alliance of State and
Territorial AIDS Directors reported that ADAP spending for HIV drugs has
increased by 806 percent since 1996; the number of ADAP clients rose by only
341 percent in the same time period. AHF estimated that the average price of
new HIV/AIDS drugs went up by 70 percent since 2000.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
