Abbott Censors AIDS Activists On YouTube?

AHF’s 60 Second Video Parody Blasting Abbott Laboratories Inc. Was Mysteriously Removed From YouTube After 36 Hours and 902 views

Video—and Protest Actions This Week in Mexico, Colombia and the US—Slam Abbott For High Prices That Keeps Its Lifesaving AIDS Drugs Out of Reach for People Living with HIV/AIDS Around the Globe

By: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Los Angeles, Ca - January 29, 2009

A video parody criticizing Abbott Laboratories Inc. for its AIDS drug pricing mysteriously disappeared from YouTube today after 36 hours and 902 views.  Parody: AHF Slams Abbott AIDS Drug Pricing, (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1090089613040) created and distributed by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), is a scathing indictment of Abbott’s outrageous global drug pricing tactics that keep its AIDS drugs—including its key lifesaving drug Kaletra—out of reach for people living with HIV/AIDS around the world. 

The video features a mock interview with an Abbott executive and utilizes a publicly-available image of Abbott CEO Miles D. White.  By contrast, video content deemed “appropriate” by YouTube this week (as evidenced by the fact that it remains on the site) includes the PETA commercial recently banned from appearing on network television during the Super Bowl due to its strong sexual content.  

In conjunction with the release of the parody video, AIDS advocates from three countries—Colombia, Mexico and the United States—held simultaneous protests yesterday in each of the three countries targeting Chicago-based pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories over the pricing of its key AIDS drug, Kaletra.  Abbott charges $1,000 per patient per year for Kaletra in most middle-income countries and $500 per patient per year in low-income countries. In Mexico and Colombia, Abbott charges $5,400 and $3,500 per patient per year, respectively, keeping it far out of reach for people living with HIV/AIDS in those countries.

AHF’s Abbott video parody premiered publicly for the first time on YouTube this past Tuesday and will air on select Chicago-area television stations.