Protest Big Pharma - Free Harvoni for Hep C Prisoners! Free Mumia Now!

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Date:

Friday, April 01, 2016

Time:

12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Event Type:

Protest

Organizer/Author:

Isis

Location Details:

Gilead Sciences’ HQ 333 Lakeside Drive Foster City, California

Protest Big Pharma!

Public Health, Not Corporate Wealth!

Free Harvoni for Hep C Prisoners! Free Mumia Now!

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, together with the Oasis Clinic in Oakland, urges you to support this demonstration to protest the outrageous price-gouging of Big Pharma corporations, like Gilead Sciences! Corporations such as Gilead hike-up the cost for essential, life-saving medications such as the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C disease (HCV), in order to reap huge profits. Prisoners are among the chief victims.

Join us at Gilead Sciences’ HQ!

333 Lakeside Drive, Foster City

12 Noon, Friday April 1st

Public transportation is available --
Allow about 90 minutes or more:
Take BART Richmond/Daly City line to Milbrae Station,
transfer to Caltrain Shuttle. Take this shuttle to: 353 Lakeside,
then it’s a short walk to Gilead, at 333 Lakeside Dr.

One pill a day for 12 weeks does the trick to cure Hepatitis-C with a 95 percent success rate. But Gilead charges $1,000 per pill, or nearly $100,000 for a full course of treatment!! Gilead Sciences, the “owner” of Harvoni, which is the effective new cure for HCV, did not develop this cure: it bought another company! Now its profit gouging threatens many thousands of lives! Obama Care does not protect against Big Pharma’s outrageous price gouging!

Nearly 5.2 million Americans are infected with HCV, according to the Center for Disease Control. And political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is among as many as 700,000 prisoners who are victims.

Prisoners who are infected with Hep-C are among the least likely to receive the newly available cure for the disease, due to both the exaggerated price, and the refusal of prison authorities to provide proper health care for inmates!

Mumia Abu-Jamal was infected in 1981, after he was shot by police and as a prisoner given a tainted blood transfusion. Falsely convicted for killing a cop and sent to death row (he’s now serving life without the possibility of parole), Mumia’s infection began to show symptoms in 2015, which is typical for this slow-incubating but usually fatal (if untreated) disease. Mass mobilization by supporters is the only reason Mumia got any medical attention at all, and he is still denied the curative Harvoni treatment which can ensure his survival! The PA prison system is now trying to kill Mumia by medical neglect!

In violation of National Institute of Health (NIH) regulations, Gilead canceled its program to supply a certain amount of the drug at low cost. And the New York Times reported that in "a complicated deal to sell hepatitis drugs at a small fraction of their usual cost while imposing tight restrictions intended to protect lucrative markets in the West... for the past year, Gilead has sold the drug to the Egyptian government for about $10 a pill."

Mumia Abu-Jamal, though he nearly died for lack of treatment last year, points out that he is only one of many. He supports the demands for treatment of some 10,000 prisoners in Pennsylvania who suffer from HCV infection.

In a recent federal appeal, lawyers fighting for treatment of Mumia brought out evidence in court of a secret PA Department of Corrections (DOC) protocol which explicitly provides for observation, but NO treatment, for HCV infected prisoners, until they are at death’s door (if then)!

WE DEMAND: PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!

NO EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!

FREE TREATMENT FOR HCV-INFECTED PRISONERS & OTHERS NOW!

JAIL DRUG PROFITEERS, FREE MUMIA!

Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • www.laboractionmumia.org

510 763-2347

Mumia Is Innocent! Free Mumia!

Added to the calendar on Fri, Mar 25, 2016 5:51AM

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