Subject: Wellcome Makes Donation to Research Run by AIDS Activist Group
Date: Published: 7/1/92 (30 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology Brief -- Wellcome PLC:
    Donation Made to Research
    Run by AIDS Activist Group

    Burroughs Wellcome Co., which markets the AIDS drug AZT,
 donated $1 million to a drug research program run by an
 activist organization that has sharply criticized the drug
 company.
    Burroughs Wellcome, the Research Triangle Park, N. C., unit
 of the British company Wellcome PLC, is the first drug maker
 to respond to a request for funding from the activist group,
 ACT-UP.  Peter Staley, an ACT-UP official, said his group
 recently asked 50 drug makers to help fund the group's
 community-based research operation, a program that runs
 clinical trials of experimental acquired immune deficiency
 syndrome treatments out of doctors' offices.
    Burroughs Wellcome has been the target of much criticism
 for the high price it charged for AZT, which has annual
 worldwide sales of more than $300 million.  Mr. Staley said
 the company has begun listening to activist concerns and
 including them in drug development policy decisions.

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