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    Old Fight, New Front: AIDS Activists Want Lower Drug Prices. Now!

    In the 1980s, ACT UP demanded action from the U.S. government and got results with drama. AIDS activists today have fresh tactics for their new goal: a more affordable HIV prevention pill.
    by Selena Simmons-Duffin May 30, 2019 5 minutes
    Jake Powell, who works in New York City, is originally from Wyoming. Powell joined the PrEP4All movement after having to go off the drug for six months because it was too costly, even for someone with health insurance.

    When the first HIV drug, AZT, came to market in 1987, it cost $10,000 a year.

    That price makes Peter Staley laugh today. "It sounds quaint and cheap now, but $10,000 a year at that time was the highest price ever set for any drug in history," he says.

    At the time, the price Burroughs Wellcome set for the drug sparked outrage. The AIDS epidemic was an urgent national crisis. For many, the diagnosis was a death sentence. The TV-viewing public was horrified by endless images of young men, suddenly sick and dying. A lost generation.

    ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — was established by Staley and others to drive government attention and research toward a cure. A key early goal of the movement: force down the price of AZT. Whatever it took.

    "I led an

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