3 X 5 mailing 1

	e-3x5 mailing list Received by Agua Buena from a Uruguayan NGO
July 23, 2005
from the e-mail address: alpcse@adinet.com.uy

Roche uses 4 Uruguayan PLWA as Guinea Pigs for 4 month Fuzeon study. Restores some to health, then discards them.

It is among the cruelest examples of pharmaceutical company greed that I have ever heard of. How can you use some one for your own research purposes, restore them to health after they were in complete treatment failure, as in the case of the 4th PLWA mentioned below, and then tell them they are "on their own" to cover a $20,000/year product? (Or that they have to "negotiate"??) BUT AT THIS MOMENT THE THREE SURVIVING PLWA ARE NO LONGER RECEIVING THE MEDICATION!!!
The letter was in Spanish, we have translated it to English.
-------------------
Montevideo, Uruguay
July 2005

Dear co-workers, we hope your good work is continuing and producing results.

Our wish is to maintain a link with you to exchange experiences and possibly some common work areas in the future.

In the meantime, please note that ALPCSE stands for the "Asociacisn de Lucha y Prevencisn Contra el Sida en el Este" (Association for Fighting and Preventing AIDS in Eastern Uruguay). Our tasks include prevention, information and counseling on VIH/AIDS-STI and supporting injecting-drug users.

Our target population is gay and transgendered individuals, sex workers and others related to this environment (HSH). Our work takes place in Eastern Uruguay and the interior of the country, with our headquarters based in Montevideo.

We are the founding partners of the Network of Organizations that comprise the Work Force working with MSM.

We would like to share with you what our country has experienced in regards to the "fuseon/T20" medication which has been used on some patients of the Public Health System as part of a protocol between upper management and Roche Laboratories, who distributes this medication.

It has currently been used for four months on four patients in different stages of the disease:-

Terminal stage - the patient's health was deteriorated due to lack of adherence to previous treatments and he/she died one month after beginning treatment.

One has cancer in addition to having AIDS.

One is currently hospitalized due to a lung infection.

The fourth was a client who had already received several different treatments and as there was no available treatment, his/her viral charge had begun to quickly increase. Fuseon had the best results - decreasing the viral charge from 266,000 to 326 and increasing the CD4 from 196 to 330.

Now that the protocol has finalized, the patients no longer are receiving this medication as they can not afford to buy it due to its high cost.

At this time we are trying to see what can be negotiated. We are interested in knowing what the situation is in your country in regards to this new medication, and what are your opinions about our situation.

We look forward to your reply and hope this is the start of a good relationship.

Greetings from Uruguay. Pablo Nalerio Selva Enrique
___________________________________
e-3x5 mailing list
e-3x5@healthnet.org
http://list.healthnet.org/mailman/listinfo/e-3x5
To join, send blank message to e-3x5-join@healthnet.org