Press room ... 1996 archive

Project Inform Praises Glaxo Wellcome
for Expansion of Patient Assistance Program for 3TC

May 16, 1996

San Francisco, CA—After several weeks of dialog and ongoing frustration by people living with HIV/AIDS and health care providers, Glaxo Wellcome has announced, effective 20 May 1996, an expansion of their Patient Assistant Program for the popular new AIDS drug 3TC (lamivudine, Epivir). Glaxo Wellcome, in an attempt to pressure states and the federal government to reimburse for 3TC, was routinely denying access to 3TC to patients who qualified for state AIDS Drugs Assistance Program (ADAP) even when those programs did not include the drug. Project Inform initiated dialog with decision-makers at Glaxo Wellcome in early March 1996 regarding their unprecedented policy decision which punished patients by denying access to drug while state administrators were struggling to identify funding sources to provide drug through state programs. Project Inform began upscaling pressure on Glaxo Wellcome over the past few weeks to force the company to address this policy which placed people living with HIV as pawns in an economic battle between government and industry. Project Inform views Glaxo Wellcome’s announcement to change its policy and supply 3TC to those who cannot otherwise access therapy as both an activist victory, a victory for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as a good faith effort by the company to work more cooperatively with both community and state officials on finding more humanitarian solutions to these kinds of problems in the future. Project Inform applauds Glaxo Wellcome’s recent decision and plans to begin addressing this issue with both Abbott Laboratories as well as Merck, whose policies are still prohibitive.

“The decision to open up the 3TC patient assistance program is a victory for Glaxo Wellcome as well as people living with AIDS,” remarked Ben Cheng, Manager of Project Inform’s Information Department. “People living with HIV/AIDS, their providers and advocates have been immobilized in their ability to work with the company in the midst of a crisis over access to the therapy, 3TC. Glaxo Wellcome’s decision makes it possible to work cooperatively toward long-term solutions which will serve everyone’s needs.”

“While industry should not be asked to bear the brunt of the cost of this epidemic, Glaxo Wellcome has made the right move by putting patient interests over economic strong-arming between industry and government. Now that immediate access issues have been addressed by Glaxo Wellcome, patient advocacy groups will be better able to work with states to create partnerships rather than adversarial relationships,” noted Martin Delaney, Founding Director of Project Inform.

Currently 39 states, including New York and California, provide 3TC through their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs . ADAP’s serve the treatment information needs to approximately 62,000 people living with HIV/AIDS nation-wide. 3TC, an anti-HIV drug which received FDA approval in late 1995, has been studied in combination therapy approaches resulting in remarkable impact on the virus, as well as immune parameters. The drug is currently being covered by private insurers and other third party reimbursers, such as MediCaid and MediCal.

“In California, patient advocacy groups have lead the way to major reforms in the state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs,” noted Brenda Lein, Director of the Information and Advocacy Department at Project Inform as well as a member of the State Office of AIDS’ Medical Advisory Committee to the California ADAP. “Industry which utilize tactics that further strain overworked state health administrators and deny access to potentially life-saving therapies to patients, in the long run hinder, not help, reform proposals which deal with these issues systemically. It was leadership from community advocates and the California State Office of AIDS which resulted in the addition of 3TC to the California ADAP formulary faster than any drug in history. Glaxo Wellcome’s decision to reverse its policy must be applauded as it enables focused efforts, by all affected parties, to improve these systems to better meet patient need.”

Since Glaxo Wellcome’s recent announcement to supply 3TC to those in need, Project Inform plans to work with the company, as well as other companies whose patient assistance programs meet patient needs, to ensure that state program’s provide coverage for therapies. Project Inform has been part of a larger coalition of both community and industry which recently secured large increases in federal funding for state ADAPs, as well as funding for AIDS care and housing. Further, Project Inform is pressuring for industry, government and community to summit on issues of treatment access, develop bottomline criteria for industry patient assistant programs and criteria and expectations for state, federal and other programs in this regard.

“Fundamentally,” notes Anne Donnelly, Policy Coordinator at Project Inform, “patient access to potentially life-saving therapy, regardless of the disease, is a public health issue that requires public health solutions. The best and most reasonable solutions are going to come when all parties sit down at a table together. It’s impossible to sit at a table and work with a company who is denying access to therapies to people in your community. The decision to provide access to 3TC to those in need is a victory for everyone, including Glaxo Wellcome, as now we can move forward with the real work at hand, which is coming to solutions to the larger drug access issues in a rapidly changing climate of new AIDS drug approval."