[procaare] Why all this hysteria about Fuzeon pricing in New York?

[Romy Mathys <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Why all this hysteria about Fuzeon pricing in New York?
- Romy Mathys,Switzerland
***************************

Being an activist and PWHA myself, swallowing ARV pill every day for 7 years, I still try
to understand all the hysteria and fuzz about Fuzeon that ACT UP New York is staging at
the moment. Sorry to be behind the moon, but I take ARV treatment for many years and
understand that compliance is the key issue here! So people who fail to comply with their
ARV treatment can develop resistance, I know that much but still fail to understand that
in a time where there are more than 20 different ARV drugs available on the market,
activists can cry out so fiercely for one single drug to be developed and overpriced! What
is the problem with you ACT UP guys? Have you never heard of compliance? Are you all
resistant to ALL the other ARV drugs available on the world market or am I missing a major
point here? Don't misunderstand me, I am not working for any pharmaceutical, I just try to
understand what this is all about?

Why is Roche accused to 'be responsible for thousands of people dying'? Aren't those
people responsible themselves, as they all had their chances to take various combinations
of ARV treatment in the first, second and third place? Or are those thousands 'assumingly
dying' just careless people who are not able or interested to comply with their ARV
treatment as it is prescribed? What exactly are ACT UP N.Y. representatives complaining
about? As an activist, I am always ready to support a fight if it is worth fighting for,
but in this case I don't see the point of getting up in arms? At the end of the day,
taking ARV treatment is mainly a question of taking responsibility of our lives and our
health ourselves, and it seems to easy to me to blame Pharmaceuticals for our own
development of resistance to many existing alternatives ARV combinations!

But guys, I am eager to learn why 'thousands of people' are dying because of Roche price
politics, knowing myself the challenges of compliance very well (I have been taking the
same drug cocktail for 6 years now), I would like to make the ACT UP activists aware that
we are not fighting for the sake of fighting against the pharmaceuticals, forgetting what
it was all about! Remember that we are fighting to make ARV available to every PHWA in the
world, no matter where this person lives!

Yours in health and solidarity,

Romy Mathys
PWHA since 1986, on ARV since 1996
Switzerland
Email: romy.mathys@bluewin.ch




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