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Published on July 24, 2007

It has vowed to continue battling the pharmaceutical giant until it lifts a blockade of HIV medication in Thailand.

"We are going to continue fighting and there might be more lawsuits to come because the reason people living with HIV/Aids are being threatened by Abbott in the first place has not been addressed. We need to continue to address the problem," said Nathan Ford, a drug-access campaigner with Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The company decided on Sunday to drop its case after chief executive Jean-Yves Pavee met with ACT UP Paris and the Thai Network of People Living with HIV.

The meeting was arranged by the International Aids Society and took place here where the Third Ministerial Meeting on HIV/Aids is going on.

However, Khalil Elouardighi, of ACT UP Paris, said the company's decision came from nowhere; no one asked the company to drop the litigation.

"What we wanted to talk to the company about was its withdrawal of Aluvia from Thailand, not the litigation facing us. The company did not have time to talk to us about our issue," he said.

Aluvia is the heat-stable version of a life-saving medication made by Abbott.

For activists like Ford, Elouardighi and others, including Wirat Purahong of the network, a lawsuit against people with HIV is minor compared with ensuring these people have access to life-saving medicine.

"Access to Aluvia for Thai Aids patients is a thousand times more important than access to Abbott's corporate website," said Wirat.

Abbott sued ACT UP Paris on May 23 in response to the group's attack on the company's website. The so-called "net-strike", initiated by ACT UP Paris, occurred worldwide on April 26 by activists protesting the company's withdrawal of Aluvia from registration in Thailand.

Abbott withdrew the drug early this year in retaliation for the government's imposition of compulsory licensing which allows it, via World Trade Organisation rules, to purchase or manufacture cheaper, generic versions of Kaletra, an HIV treatment made by Abbott.

Medecins Sans Frontieres yesterday issued a new report about worldwide drug prices for HIV medication. It found compulsory licences issued by Thailand had stimulated dramatic price reductions for second-line anti-retroviral treatments internationally.

Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation

SYDNEY