BMS : save the children’s lives, not your profits

Sunday 3 August 2008

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Act Up-Paris - supported by some american activists - has interrupted the BMS commercial symposium in order to protest against its decision to stop the distribution of the 100 mg paediatric formulation of efavirenz.

BMS stopped the distribution of the 100 mg paediatric formulation of efavirenz, known in some countries as Sustiva. Though, this drug is the most suited for paediatric use.

No relevant reasons were given to the activists and the doctors, except that the volume of prescription does not allow adequate quality levels. The truth is, no inventory of the actual prescriptions of efavirenz 100mg had been carried out prior to the decision and no impact study on other efavirenz formulations have been realized.

BMS’s stockholders sacrifice children because they think the 100 mg formulation is not profitable enough. This is an outrage. We suggest you leave this symposium and sign in our open letter to BMS that demands the lab to reconsider its decision.