April 13, 2001
Mark Yudof
For the past five years I have directed the Agua Buena Human Rights
Association here in San Jos=E9 Costa Rica. Our main focus in on access to
medical treatment for people Living with HIV/AIDS, including
anti-retroviral medications.
I have recently been informed that the University of Minnesota is the
patent holder on compounds used to produce the drug abacavir.
The outrageously high prices of anti-retroviral medications is a reality
which we in Central America assumed was the result of policies of
multi-national pharmaceutical companies. Now, students at the University
of Minnesota have informed us, that the University is also profiting from the
prices of these medications. It is shocking to me personally that a
University would be involved in this situation, which is really of
genocidal proportions.
Mr. Yudof, if you have been ill, you have probably always been in the
privileged position of receiving the medical care that you needed.
Possibly, you cannot imagine how horrible it is that people should suffer
and die for the lack a few tiny pills whose cost is so greatly inflated
that they cannot afford it. This is wrong, and will be recorded by
history as one of the great injustices of these times.
I am a Mid-Westerner, born and raised in Chicago, educated at the
University of Michigan, and hopefully familiar with the world in which you now live,
a world in which practically all people are able to get the medical care
that they need.
Please do not allow the University of Minnesota to continue with policies
that are responsible for denying medical treatment to people in developing
countries.
Sincerely,
Richard Stern, Ph.D.
cc: University of Minnesota, Board of Trustees
President
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Fax: 612-625-3875
Dear Mr. Yudof,
Director, Agua Buena Human Rights Association
San Jos=E9 Costa Rica
Tel/Fax 506-234-2411
www.aguabuena.org
rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr
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