"In the new post-Barcelona politeness era, the [15th Int'l AIDS] conference chair, Joep Lange, and Helene Gayle from the Gates Foundation -- who will chair the next one in Canada in two years time -- asked the activists to get it out of their system quickly and let Randall Tobias have a hearing. So they went quiet, but as Tobias stood at the podium they persisted in holding up placards bearing just two little words: 'He's lying.' Tobias gave the impression of a man on the verge of apoplexy, walked back to his seat and refused to budge until Lange and Gayle had persuaded the demonstrators to stop. He then gave his speech to a modicum of heckling and made a swift exit.
"Oh, and the content? Lots of admirable stuff about working together, fighting Aids not each other, and giving money to local groups in the worst-hit countries who know what they need to do to fight the disease. But he also defended abstinence, the focus on faith-based groups, and 'high quality drugs,' and he called the Global Fund a young -- ergo immature and not to be trusted with too much cash -- organisation. He did promise, however, to buy generics if the US regulators approved them and they were the cheapest available. At a conference where all the UN organisations have been loudly and clearly stating that abstinence doesn't work for women without the power to say no, he is yet to win any new friends...
"Tobias [had] a slight image problem. He was chief executive of the huge US drug company Eli Lilly before his retirement. Lilly actually makes Prozac, not anti-retrovirals, but you can imagine how a former pharmaceutical fat cat goes down at a conference where the Indian generic companies that ripped-off the big name companies to produce cheap, lifesaving Aids drugs are heroes and saints."
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