This something of an about face, but is likely designed to save face. And the move, which the drugmaker very quietly posted on its web site this weekend, came after tussling with the Student Global AIDS Campaign in recent days over the company’s intentions.
Here’s the backdrop: On July 20, Abbott announced plans to seek [...]

One month after filing suit against Act-Up Paris for launching a cyber attack on its web site, the drugmaker has dropped its action against the French AIDS activist group, according to the International AIDS Society, which arranged a meeting between the two organizations in Australia, Bloomberg News reports.
Act-Up Paris orchestrated the cyber attack after Abbott [...]

Last week, we wrote that Abbott Labs is ‘going green’ by trying to persuade its 6,000-plus sales force to switch to an unspecified hybrid car. And we also noted that some Novartis sales reps are none too pleased about the Prius, which that drugmaker chose as a cost-saving maneuver.
But here’s why management thinks the Prius [...]

Trying to buff its image, the drugmaker wants to convert all 6,000-plus cars in its sales fleet to hybrids in hopes of reducing the carbon emissions its employees pump into the atmosphere. The cars driven by sales reps currently are estimated to represent about 11 percent of Abbott’s total emissions, and the drugmaker plans to [...]

Bangkok isn’t impressed with the offer Abbott Labs made this week to Brazil for its AIDS drug. A Thai health official says Thailand wants deeper price cuts than Brazil accepted or his country will break the patent on Kaletra. Vichai Chokevivat, an architect of Bangkok’s controversial policy to override patents, says Abbott’s offer of $1,000 [...]

Brazil agreed to an offer today from Abbott Labs to cut the price of its Kaletra AIDS drug by 29.5 percent, a move to keep poorer countries from breaking patents and buying generic substitutes, Reuters reports. The lower price for Kaletra, a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, will save Brazil about $10 million a year [...]

Sales reps are filing lawsuits today against two more drugmakers - Bristol-Myers Squibb and Abbott Labs - over alleged violations of state and federal overtime laws. With these filings, all of the biggest drugmakers face overtime lawsuits in state and federal courts, according to the lawyers for the sales reps.
The lawsuits charge the drugmakers unlawfully [...]

In a rather pointed letter, Henry Waxman and 34 other members of Congress tell US Trade Rep Sue Schwab that her office has “penalized” Thailand by placing the Asian nation on its Priority Watch list.
This is a dubious distinction reserved for countries that don’t “provide an adequate level of intellectual property rights protection or enforcement.” [...]

This should give Abbott Labs pause. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe poorer countries should be allowed to break a drugmaker’s patent on an AIDS med if doing so would help its population, according to a poll from Harris Interactive and The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
In fact, 57 percent favored the recent move by Brazil [...]

Earlier this week, news broke that Abbott had filed a lawsuit against Act Up-Paris because the activist group protested the company’s patent row with Thailand by organizing an attack on Abbott’s web site. Act-Up Paris faces a fine up to $100,000 if it loses the suit and could be disbanded. The drugmaker says its lawsuit [...]