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AHF Rejects Cipla's Demand For Apology And One Billion Rupees - 'We Are Fighting For The Lives Of Our Patients In India!'
By Anna Ohlden | September 7th 2007 04:40 PM | Print | E-mail | Track Comments

NEW DELHI, India, August 23 /PRNewswire/ --

- After AIDS Healthcare Foundation Publicly Challenged Indian Company Over Its AIDS Drug Pricing, Cipla Demands One Billion Rupees (USD $25 Million) from HIV/AIDS NGO and Threatens Lawsuit

- India's Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission Opened Inquiry of Drug Maker; AHF to Urge MRTPC to Expand Its Investigation of Cipla's Drug Pricing Practices

WHAT: Press Conference -- AHF to Ask India's Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) to Widen Its Inquiry of Cipla's Drug Pricing WHEN: Friday, August 24, 2007, 12:00 noon WHERE: NEW DELHI -- Ambassador Hotel, Sujan Singh Park, New Delhi (room: Wheels Hall) WHO: Dr. Chinkholal Thangsing, Asia Pacific Bureau Chief, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Dr. Mahesh Ganesan, Ph.D. Asia Pacific Bureau Advocacy Coordinator, AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in India under AHF -- India Cares (in Mysore, New Delhi and in Guwahati, Assam in collaboration with the National AIDS Control Organization) -- will host a press conference in New Delhi on Friday August 24th in which it will refute Cipla's assertions regarding its claim of "defamation" and address Cipla's legal threat to the NGO. AHF will also call on the government of India's Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) -- India's anti-trust commission that probes monopolistic, restrictive and unfair trade practices -- to widen its announced inquiry of Indian drug maker Cipla over steep price for one of Cipla's generic AIDS drug combinations in India compared with prices the company has offered for people in Africa.

Web site: http://www.aidshealth.org

INDIA: Dr. Chinkholal Thangsing, Asia Pacific Bureau Chief, AHF Global (New Delhi), +91-98-1827-0687 mobile, chinkholal.thangsing@aidshealth.org, or Dr. Mahesh Ganesan, Advocacy Coordinator, Asia Pacific Bureau , AHF Global (New Delhi), +91-99-1133-1998 mobile, or UNITED STATES, Ged Kenslea, Communications Director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), +1-323-860-5225 work, +1-323-791-5526 mobile, gedk@aidshealth.org, or Lori Yeghiayan, Associate Director of Communications, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), +1-323-860-5227 work, +1-323-377-4312 mobile, lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org