International Day of Action
April 25th, 2006This post was written by Diarmaid. You can read more posts by: Diarmaid or more posts in Campaign News
Friday 28th April: International protest against Abbott Pharmaceuticals
Abbott Pharmaceuticals, a US company with offices in the UK, recently developed a new formulation of the essential anti retroviral drug Kaletra. New Kaletra has multiple benefits for people in developing countries, in particular that it does not need to be stored in a fridge, but Abbott have been slow in making lost cost versions of the drug available in Africa.
On Friday 28 April an International Day of Action will take place to mark Abbott�s annual shareholders� meeting. Activists from the Student Global AIDS Campaign and their partner organisations will be holding a protest right outside Abbott�s Chicago HQ!
By taking action on this day, you and other campaigners all over the US and UK are showing your solidarity with this protest. What�s more, you�re helping to raise awareness and sending out a strong message that access to HIV treatment matters to you!
Get involved
In the UK, the main purpose of the day of action is to raise awareness of what�s happening and to get people taking action. Set up somewhere where lots of students will see you, give out plenty of information on what Abbott and other companies are doing and get people to write letters in protest. Our handy brief will help you on your way � download it here
Act now� write a letter
Have you ever received a hand written letter by post? Wasn�t it worth so much more than a text or email? Even if you don�t have time to organise a stall or event, make sure you write to Abbott and Gilead, asking them to mend their ways. By putting down how you feel about this issue on paper, you�re showing pharmaceutical companies that treatment access really matters to you. You can download a sample letter here, but if you put it in your own words it�ll be way more hard hitting!
