HARVARD COLLEGE GLOBAL HEALTH & AIDS COALITION

PRESS RELEASE Friday, 21 October 2011

Contact: Alyssa Yamamoto, Harvard College, 914-629-4093,yamamoto@fas.harvard.edu
Matthew Basilico, Harvard Medical School, 617-775-6992,matthew.basilico@gmail.com

A Patent Pool Party: Activists Make a Splash Outside Merck’s Pharmaceutical Labs
Groups warn that Merck’s refusal to join other companies in negotiating with the Medicines Patent Pool will jeopardize access to lifesaving AIDS treatment.

(Boston, MA, Friday, 21 October, 1:30pm) Over 50 students from Harvard University, Boston University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, people living with AIDS, and allies from Boston community groups held a “Pool Party” demonstration at Merck’s laboratories, adjacent to Harvard Medical School. The protesters donned bathing suits, sounding the call for Merck to enter negotiations with the Medicines Patent Pool. “Merck’s current neglect is costing millions of lives. We demand that Merck join in negotiations with the Pool by January 2012, produce licenses for its patented AIDS drugs, efavirenz and raltegravir, that allow generic distribution in all middle and low-income countries, and guarantee that the resulting licenses will not place restrictions on the procurement of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API),” explained Alyssa Yamamoto, from Harvard College.

The Pool is a two-year-old organization established for pharmaceutical companies and other R&D organizations to voluntarily share their patented AIDS drugs, offering lower prices in poor countries. According to UNAID, last year only 35% of people needing HIV therapy had access to treatment. In the past year, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical company Gilead have licensed patents to the Medicines Patent Pool. Unlike its peers in Big Pharma, including Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, F. Hoffman-La Roche, and Viiv Healthcare, Merck refuses to enter negotiations. “I find it outrageous that Merck would demonstrate such indecency while peer companies join the Patent Pool graciously,” said Matthew Basilico, from Harvard Medical School.

Despite Merck’s professed commitment to global health, its leadership has repeatedly rejected solicitations from the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation. Compared to Merck’s current model of tiered pricing, licensing to generic producers through the Pool would significantly discount ARV prices and expand geographic scope. Northeastern University School of Law Professor Brook Baker argued, “The Medicines Patent Pool promises much lower prices, diverse sources of supply, and new formulations and combinations for both children and adults, who will otherwise die because of lack of access to life saving medicines. Is monopoly pricing in poor countries really that important to Merck’s bottom line and to its partnership with Harvard?”

Friday’s Pool Party is part of an ongoing campaign for the MPP across the U.S. and U.K., and the activists plan on heading to Merck’s New Jersey headquarters next.

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