AZT Maker Gives $1 Million to Research : Health: The firm seeks to end an estrangement with AIDS activists with a donation to a clinical trials program.
In a symbolic rapprochement between AIDS activists and the pharmaceutical industry, Burroughs Wellcome Co. kicked off a fund-raising drive for AIDS research Tuesday by donating $1 million to a campaign originated by the activist organization ACT UP.
The donation, the largest cash gift by a pharmaceutical company to an AIDS research organization, will be administered by the community-based clinical trials program of the American Foundation for AIDS Research. It will result in a nearly 50% increase in AmFAR’s grants for community-based drug research.
The Burroughs gift is the first step in an ACT UP campaign to tap the industry for $5 million in annual contributions to community-based research.
ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, is best-known for its high-profile demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. Three years ago, for example, ACT UP leader Peter Staley barricaded himself and a small group of activists in Burroughs Wellcome’s corporate headquarters in North Carolina to protest the high price of the firm’s AIDS drug, AZT.
At a press conference here Tuesday, Staley shook hands with officials of his onetime nemesis, thanking Burroughs Wellcome for the gift.
“We as an organization have come to realize that the goals of ACT UP--most notably, the discovery of treatments for HIV disease--are not all that different than ours,” said Larry Wheeler, vice president for public affairs for Burroughs. HIV, short for human immunodeficiency virus, is believed by most scientists to cause AIDS.
“It’s much better to work together on the areas where we do agree, and to continue our dialogue in areas of disagreement, than it is to stonewall,” Wheeler added.
While $1 million may not be a huge sum for Burroughs--the company sold $1.6 billion worth of products, including $182 million of AZT, in the first six months of its current fiscal year--AmFAR officials said the contribution is significant for the hard-pressed AIDS research effort, which is facing cutbacks at the federal level.
Burroughs cut the price of AZT by 20% in September, 1989, three days after Staley led another ACT UP action against the company at the New York Stock Exchange. The drug, in typically prescribed doses, costs about $2,500 a year. ACT UP is pressing Burroughs to reduce the price of acyclovir, which many AIDS patients use to combat herpes infections.
AmFAR, which will administer the funds to be generated by the ACT UP initiative, made $2.2 million in grants to its network of community-based trial centers last year, said Paul Corser, the program’s director.
Staley, a former Wall Street bond trader who is on disability leave because of his own HIV infection, was the driving force in bringing ACT UP and Burroughs together. He is a member of AmFAR’s board of directors and called community-based research “an important alternative to our government’s clinical research program.”
“With their donations,” Staley added, “the industry will help build an invaluable network of research sites through which promising AIDS treatments can be tested.”
AmFAR’s Community-based Clinical Trials Network consists of 45 groups representing 1,500 physicians who care for an estimated 155,000 men, women and children with HIV.
The groups, located across the country, conduct research on drugs and provide access to experimental therapies to patients who, for any number of reasons, may not be eligible to participate in traditional trials conducted by academic centers.
ACT UP has contacted 50 companies and asked them to contribute a total of $5 million to the new program by Sept. 1. “We approached Burroughs Wellcome and asked them to respond early to kick off the campaign in a public way,” Staley said.
Although a small faction within ACT UP was against the joint press conference, arguing that Burroughs was using the gift to garner a public relations bonanza, Staley said he had no reservations.
“The federal research effort is not working,” he said. “We’ll take help wherever we can get it. This is a desperate situation.”
But other pharmaceutical companies shouldn’t draw comfort from ACT UP’s truce with Burroughs, he said.
“The activist community continues to have issues with the pharmaceutical industry, and when push comes to shove, we will continue to raise them as we have in the past,” Staley said, adding that the Burroughs gift vindicates activists “who believe we should use many different tools and approaches to achieve our ends.”
