AHF: As Gilead Prepares to Price the ‘Quad,’ 20 California Legislators Say Aids Drug Pricing “Unsustainable”

Twenty Members of the state legislature cosign a letter to Dr. Ron Chapman, Director of California’s Department of Public Health, encouraging the State of California to, “ … employ all the levers of influence and authority that the government possesses, independently and in partnership with other states, to reduce the price of prescription drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS…”

<0> AHF: As Gilead Prepares to Price the ‘Quad,’ 20 California Legislators Say Aids Drug Pricing “Unsustainable” </0>

AIDS Healthcare FoundationCommunications Director+1-323-791-5526 [cell]

today lauded (D, 53 Assembly District) for a she wrote—and which nineteen fellow California state legislators cosigned—to in which the legislators expressed concern about the rising costs of drugs to treat people with HIV/AIDS served by California’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and encouraged Chapman’s department to,

Butler’s cosigners include: (D, 13 District); (D, 8 District); (D, 35 District); (D, Torrance); (D, 40 District); (D, 76 District); (D, 24 District); (D, 78 District); (D, Santa Clara); (D, 54 District); Senator (D, Los Angeles); Assemblymember (D, 6 District); (D, 45 District); (D, 41 District); (D, 15 District); (D, 1 District); (D, 62 District); (D, Los Angeles) and (D, 44 District).

In the legislators’ letter to Dr. Chapman, dated and sent August 16, 2012, they noted:

They also pointed out:

“We thank Assemblymember Butler and the nineteen colleagues in the legislature who cosigned this letter urging Dr. Chapman, as head of California’s Department of Public Health, to use the power of the state’s enormous size and pocketbook to try to leverage reduced prices for antiretroviral drugs used in California’s MediCal and ADAP programs for low-income Californians,” said , President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

In the legislators’ letter to Dr. Chapman, they further noted that:

AHF’s Weinstein added in his statement: “To save lives, curb the spread of HIV, and lower long-term care expenses, it is imperative to get more patients tested and into antiretroviral treatment. This will be nearly impossible if we continue to introduce new HIV drugs—like California-based Gilead Science’s new treatment, the ‘Quad’—at prices higher than the current, all too similar drugs they replace. Gilead’s excessive pricing of its AIDS drugs has already generated record profits for the company, and $53 million in annual pay for its CEO, John Martin, making him the tenth highest paid executive in the nation. Sadly, this has come at the expense of state ADAP and Medicaid programs, the largest purchasers of Gilead’s products, and the people living with HIV/AIDS that rely on these programs but cannot access them due to funding constraints. A state as vast and powerful as California can and should use its clout to stand up to runaway pricing drug companies like Gilead feel they can get away with.”

(AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 176,000 individuals in 27 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: , find us on Facebook: and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.