Act-Up is in the midst of an ‘International Week of Action’ over a recent remark by one of the drugmaker’s execs, who was allegedly quoted as saying that Roche does “not do business to save lives but to make money. Saving lives is not our business.”

The activist group, which is aggressively publicizing its protest, goes on to say the statement was made following talks failed to lower the the pricing of Roche’s Fuzeon AIDS med. The South Korean government reportedly is unable to pay more that $18,000 per year per person, but Roche demanded $22,000, and refused to cut the price. For now, Fuzeon is not available in South Korea.

What does Act-Up want? Roche should meet with South Korean AIDS activists, lower its prices on all of its HIV/AIDS drugs, and the group urges the South Korean government to issue a compulsory license for Fuzeon (Act-Up statement).

A Roche spokeswoman sends us this statement: “Roche is committed to working with the health authority of South Korea to address pricing and provide access to Fuzeon (enfuvirtide) for patients through the country’s national health insurance program. Roche believes the price it has put forth is fair and necessary as the production process for Fuzeon requires more than 100 steps, 10 times more than other antiretrovirals.

“Roche takes its role to improve access to medicines very seriously. We seek sustainable and ethical ways to create partnerships, policies and programs that increase access to our medicines. We supply our antiretrovirals, Invirase and Viracept, at no profit and reduced prices for people living in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), sub-Saharan Africa and low-income/lower-middle income countries.

“Roche has also established transparent no patent policies for all its medicines, so intellectual property is not a barrier to access for any of our medicines in the world’s LDCs. This is extended to patents on antiretrovirals in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest and hardest hit region by HIV/AIDS.”