- The Guardian,
- Thursday April 19, 2001
Students at the University of Minnesota are trying to use the university's drug patents to press the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to let generic Aids medicines be sold in poor countries.
Abacavir, sold as Ziagen by Glaxo, was developed by Robert Vince, a chemist at the university, to whom Glaxo pays royalties of between 5% to 10%.
Student activists say the royalties are immoral when most HIV-sufferers in poor countreis cannot afford Ziagen. They want the university to use its patent rights to make Glaxo halt its case against the sale of generic drugs. A similar Yale lobby of the US company Bristol Myers Squibb succeeded month.
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Thursday April 19 2001 . It was last updated at 02:28 on April 19 2001.
