U.S. Jesuit criticizes drug companies for high cost of AIDS drugs

Published: 2004-01-29

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A U.S. Jesuit priest condemned pharmaceutical companies for "genocidal action" in their refusal to make anti-retroviral drugs more affordable in Africa. Father Angelo D'Agostino, a psychiatrist with 24 years' experience in Africa, said AIDS was killing 400 people a day in Kenya while in Europe and North America it was no longer considered a fatal disease. He said this difference in mortality rates was due to "the genocidal action of the drug cartels who refuse to make the drugs affordable in Africa even after they reported a $517 billion profit in 2002." He said, "This is a moral issue that shows the lack of social conscience by these capitalistic enterprises." The priest asked, "How will we Christians explain this silence on our part some 50 years from now?" He made his remarks Jan. 29 at a Vatican press conference that presented Pope John Paul II's Lenten message as well as launched a special Vatican fund-raiser in support of a new project to help AIDS orphans. Father D'Agostino leads the project, called Nyumbani Village.

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