![]() Date: 2024-08-16 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018620 | |||||||||
Activism | |||||||||
Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | |||||||||
Corona cure held hostage
Anne Isakowitsch, SumOfUs 11:47 AM (1 hour ago) to me Pharma giant Gilead may have found the cure for coronavirus. But if we leave it up to Gilead, only the rich will be able to afford the drug. Can you chip in $1 to force Gilead to give up its monopoly and make the coronavirus treatment accessible to all? Donating just takes a moment -- use Paypal or your card. DONATE $1 NOW Peter, We could be close to a breakthrough in the search for a cure for the coronavirus. The most likely candidate: Gilead’s drug Remdesivir. But Gilead wants to keep exclusive control over the drug’s patent. And that’s bad news because Gilead is notorious for price gouging. It charges $1000 for a single pill of its hepatitis C drug! But here’s the good news: right now all eyes are on Gilead -- the company is extremely sensitive to public pressure. And Peter, this is where you come in. With your help, we’ll charter a plane to fly over Gilead's headquarters and the whole of San Francisco to send a strong message to Gilead’s bosses: “Stop trying to make a profit from the coronavirus!” We’ve found someone who can fly a plane for just under 5000 US Dollars. And this won’t just get the attention of Gilead: it will be splashed all over the news, including all the big financial newspapers -- and Gilead’s bosses and shareholders will be freaked out by this negative publicity. Donating just takes a moment -- use Paypal or your card. Can you chip in $1 to make sure coronavirus drugs will be available to all? If we don’t win this and Gilead keeps exclusive rights to its drug, the treatment will be extremely expensive and out of reach for many people and countries around the world. And just as important: there won’t be enough of it for everyone. Experts say Gilead would not be able to produce the huge quantities of the drug that we need to meet global demand. The only solution is for Gilead to share its data and let other countries and manufacturers develop generic versions of the drug -- this will make it cheap and widely available. And that’s exactly what we need to save lives and beat this global pandemic. I don’t have to tell you how important this is. If Gilead keeps a monopoly, it would mean it could block generic development of the drug until 2031. 2031! That will be too late for too many people. So we'll start with the plane and won't stop until Gilead gives in -- but we can only do it with your help: Donating just takes a moment -- use Paypal or your card. Can you chip in $1 for a free coronavirus cure for all? Thanks for all that you do, Anne, Christian and the whole team at SumOfUs More information: Gilead criticised over ‘orphan status’ for potential virus treatment. The Financial Times. 24 March 2020. Hopes rise over experimental drug's effectiveness against coronavirus. The Guardian. 16 March 2020. SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. This email was sent to peterbnyc@gmail.com. | Unsubscribe
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