FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: REBECCA FARMER, 202-628-8669 ext. 114

NOWNOW President Patricia Ireland Joins New York City Activists

to Protest Corporate Monopoly Over Cancer Treatment


September 5, 2000

"With prescription drug costs front and center in the presidential campaigns, NOW must raise a truly reprehensible example of corporate welfare and greed and the devastating impact on the lives of desperately ill women," said National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland. "We must expose how a life-sustaining drug, developed with millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded research and desperately needed by thousands of women with breast and ovarian cancer, costs up to $10,000 a year because of a government gift during the Bush administration to a giant pharmaceutical company."
Who:          NOW President Patricia Ireland

What:         Picket and Statement on Monopoly Pricing of Prescription Drugs

Where:   Bristol-Myers Squibb (345 Park Avenue in NYC)

When:    Tuesday, September 5, 2000 at 2:00 PM

"How the pharmaceutical company first obtained and has kept a monopoly on this critical drug is a potential bombshell that NOW intends to explode," Ireland said. "By doing so, we will bring pressure to stop an unconscionable, and so far successful, campaign to block the marketing of a generic drug that would cost only half the price currently charged to women stricken with breast and ovarian cancer, AIDS patients with Karposa sarcoma, and the federal and state governments through Medicare and Medicaid."

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Ireland is available for comment.  To schedule an interview please call NOW's Media Relations Office at 202-628-8669, ext. 114.

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