AHF to protest against Merck's pricing of Isentress

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF):

“There is no justification for Merck to price Isentress three times higher than other first-line AIDS drugs”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a protest Wednesday morning, March 24^th at 10:30am targeting Merck and Co. Pharmaceuticals over the pricing and policies for its key HIV/AIDS drug, Isentress, one of the most expensive first-line AIDS treatment in the US, during the Barclays Capital Global Healthcare Conference. The protest will take place starting at 10:30am in front of Loews Hotel Miami Beach (1601 Collins Avenue at 16^th St.), where the Barclay’s conference is being held. The protest is scheduled to occur in advance of an investment presentation being delivered by Merck executives at 11:15am Wednesday morning during the conference.

“There is no justification for Merck to price Isentress three times higher than other first-line AIDS drugs,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President, in a statement. “The price of this drug is putting an unbearable strain on taxpayer funded State AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) and the thousands of people who rely on them. The limited funding available for these programs is being exhausted by the high cost of Isentress and other newer AIDS drugs. Several states are now unable to provide treatment to additional people who need it. Through this protest at this Barclays conference, we reiterate our call on Merck to do the right thing and immediately lower the price of Isentress.”

AHF protestors will carry signs and banners stating, “Shame on Merck” at the Collins Avenue entrance to the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach during the company’s investment presentation at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference. In addition, protesters will carry several three-foot by four-foot sandwich board advertisements parodying a defensive full page, four color print ad that Merck published in January in the San Francisco Chronicle (Tuesday, January 12, 2010, page A5) defending its AIDS drug pricing and policies touting Merck’s, “…commitment to HIV and AIDS,” and claiming, “We price all our HIV medicines fairly and responsibly.”

Merck published that ad during a similar protest spearheaded by AHF that took place in January during a J.P. Morgan Healthcare Investor Conference in San Francisco at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. In response to Merck’s ad, AHF advocates created a point-by-point parody advertisement refuting claims made by Merck in its initial Chronicle ad. Protesters will hand out copies of the ad to Barclays attendees, and AHF’s parody ad will also be published in select newspapers and magazines nationwide.

“We’re here to let people know that Merck is causing great harm to people with HIV/AIDS with its unwarranted pricing of Isentress,” said Jessie Gruttaudaria, Public Affairs Director for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Programs like ADAP are feeling the impact right now and lives are being put at risk because of excessive drug pricing. Some of Florida and the nation’s most vulnerable citizens may face a potentially fatal interruption in their lifesaving AIDS drug treatment. This cannot continue. Merck should lower the price of Isentress immediately.”

Background on AHF Advocacy on Merck’s Drug Pricing

AHF’s Merck protest in Miami during the Barclays Investment Conference is part of an ongoing advocacy campaign targeting Merck over its pricing for Isentress. This week’s protest comes on the heels of similar AHF-led protests targeting Merck in January and February. The first was held in early January in San Francisco in conjunction with the J.P. Morgan Investor Healthcare Conference while Merck officials were speaking.

In late February, AHF also hosted a protest during the 17^th Conference of Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) also in San Francisco, where Merck scientists were presenting a research paper.

Earlier this month, AHF then placed innovative vinyl train station banner ads urging, ‘Merck: ‘Do the Right Thing’ hanging from light poles on the train platforms in Whitehouse Station, NJ, Merck’s hometown in an effort to educate Merck employees and other commuters about Merck’s AIDS drug pricing and policies.

The Whitehouse Station banner ad campaign also follows inquiries into Merck’s pricing strategy for Isentress by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation’s largest public pension fund and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS). Advocates from AHF testified before members of the CalPERS and CalSTRS Investment Committees about the impact of the high price of the drug on people with AIDS in California and across the country. In response to AHF’s testimony, the committees agreed to make inquiries.

AHF also wrote letters to all state ADAP and Medicaid Directors requesting that Isentress be placed on “prior authorization” in order to control costs while still ensuring that those patients who need Isentress have access to it. Placing “prior authorization” procedures on Isentress ensures that the drug remains available to those for whom it is medically necessary. The procedure simply requires that a physician fill out a request form if he/she deems it necessary to prescribe the drug. NOTE: The price for many of the federally funded, state-run and cash-strapped AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) is $8,088 per patient per year—three times more expensive than commonly prescribed ARVs for first-line treatment).

In addition, over the past year AHF also sent several postcard mailers to homes in select zip codes in and around Merck’s headquarters in Whitehouse Station, NJ in an effort to inform Merck employees about the company’s pricing and policies regarding Isentress. The latest postcard—sent just a few weeks ago—reads, “Merck: A Proud Tradition…Gone Bad” and features side-by-side photos of Merck’s incumbent CEP Richard Clark and his well-respected predecessor, Dr. P. Roy Vagelos. In 1987, then CEO Vagelos made history offering Merck’s drug for river blindness FREE to countries that requested it. Unlike Richard Clark’s guidance of Merck’s current AIDS drug pricing and policies, Vagelos’ action in 1987 earned worldwide acclaim and remains a shining example of visionary corporate action that benefited people and business.

Merck’s Isentress: Salvage Therapy versus First Line Use

Initially approved in October 2007 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a salvage therapy, the FDA recently expanded its approval of Merck’s Isentress for use as a first line course of treatment in HIV/AIDS, a move which both greatly expands the US market for the drug and makes Merck’s antiretroviral (ARV) Isentress the most expensive first line treatment on the market. When it first came to market, Merck set the Average Wholesale Price (AWP) of Isentress at $12,150 per patient yearly. Merck has since raised the AWP of Isentress to $12,868—a 5% price hike—since its introduction to market two years ago.

At minimum, Isentress must be taken with at least two other HIV/AIDS drugs as part of an effective antiretroviral treatment regimen, pushing the overall price of one Isentress patient’s yearly AIDS drugs to between $20,000 and $30,000. Public programs (Federal and State) are the largest purchaser of ARV medications in the country, with Medicare and Medicaid the single largest payer for HIV/AIDS care in the U.S.

The Department of Health and Human Services treatment guidelines include several preferred treatment options for first-line patients. These options provide the same clinical benefit as Isentress but cost less. For example, Isentress—which must be taken with two additional AIDS drugs—costs nearly as much as an entire three-drug regimen of Viread, Emtriva and Sustiva.