AHF praises NJ for saving drug program, criticizes BMS for refusal to cut prices for ADAPs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) lauded innovative New Jersey state health officials who were able to keep providing nearly 1,000 AIDS patients throughout the state with access to lifesaving antiretroviral medications with an 11^th hour fix to a struggling state AIDS drug distribution program that was set to cut them from the program's eligibility rolls as of Sunday, August 1^st. According to a news item published Friday in 'The Record' on the website www.NorthJersey.com, State health officials were able to avoid cutting the patients from the rolls of the program by, "…using $5 million in additional rebates from drug manufacturers and a special federal grant the state expects. New, stricter income guidelines had excluded them (the threatened patients) from the state AIDS Drug Distribution Program as a result of budget cuts."

“…using $5 million in additional rebates from drug manufacturers and a special federal grant the state expects. New, stricter income guidelines had excluded them (the threatened patients) from the state AIDS Drug Distribution Program as a result of budget cuts.”

Meanwhile AHF, which has been spearheading multi-pronged national advocacy efforts and protests over the past several months to highlight the plight of hard-hit ADAPs, criticized New Jersey's own Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS), which remains the only major AIDS drug company that has refused to offer any price cuts or concessions to struggling AIDS Drug Assistance Programs around the nation.

"AHF has been leading or joining in a number of protests, rallies and actions in California, Florida, Iowa, South Carolina and elsewhere to try and save these crucial AIDS drug programs from cutting vulnerable people off from access to lifesaving antiretroviral medications," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "We applaud New Jersey officials for saving the state's drug program which will now keep nearly 1,000 people on treatment. At the same time, we are saddened and angered by the irony that as this life-threatening drama played out with low-income AIDS patients throughout the state, New Jersey's own Bristol Myers Squibb defiantly remains the only major AIDS drug company that has refused to offer any price cuts to the nation's hard-hit ADAPs. Shame on BMS for so blatantly turning its back on some of New Jersey's—and the nation's—most vulnerable citizens."

According to the 'Record' article, "…the new effort (called the Temporary AIDS Supplemental Rebate and Federal Assistance Program), will cover only AIDS/HIV drugs, and not medications for other health conditions or drug side effects, the health department said. Eligible patients will be transferred to it automatically."

With state budgets stretched thin and increasing numbers of unemployed workers without health insurance, numerous states like New Jersey have been forced to cap enrollment in their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which provide medications to low-income Americans living with the disease. Currently, there are more than 2,000 individuals in thirteen states on waiting lists to receive lifesaving AIDS medications, and these waiting lists are growing by hundreds of people each week.

BMS remains the only major AIDS drug manufacturer to refuse to offer discounts to ADAPs. At $13,000 per patient per year, BMS' key AIDS drug Reyataz is one of the most expensive first-line AIDS treatments on the market.

Merck and Company, Johnson & Johnson's Tibotec Therapeutics, Gilead Sciences Inc., Viiv Healthcare (a new drug company formed in a partnership between GSK and Pfizer) and Abbott Labs have all offered significant discounts and pricing concessions to cash-strapped ADAPs.