Is it worth me dying for this?
That's so dramatic (laughs).
Interviewer: You're like,
"as long as you get it on tape."
(laughs) Oh my God.
My commitment to this trial, it,
yeah, it's worth, it is worth dying for.
(touching music)
My name is Jeffrey Drew.
I have been HIV positive
for over 32 years now.
(touching music)
Judge: Do you swear or affirm
that the testimony you are about to give
is the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Group: I do.
In 1995, we told patients with AIDS
they would with certainty die.
AIDS plagued my internship.
By the end of that year,
we had an FDA approved HIV cocktail,
three drugs up to 14 pills a day,
which if taken without fail,
allowed AIDS patients to live.
At the time, the three drugs of the cocktail
cost a total of $15,000 per person per year,
but the cost of these drug regiments today
is $40,000 to $50,000 per person per year,
A 300% increase in 25 years.
I just believe that it's my responsibility
as a human being just to try to do my best here,
and if that means helping to gather information
for a cure, that appeals to me.
I had heard about the trial the summer,
the beginning of the summer of 2019.
They had already started,
they had a few people involved with patient one,
and so there was an excitement about it
and wasn't attached to big pharma, and I thought,
"oh, that's interesting,"
and so it took me awhile to consider it
because I didn't know what it exactly entailed.
I was concerned about in the long term, what would happen,
and even my HIV doctor, I might as well just say this.
I mean, they don't know that I've been doing this study
and I've just kept it from them,
because I don't want to be cut off from the system.
I've been keeping all my medications
because I don't know if I'm going to need them.
Interviewer: Does that scare you?
It scares the shit out of me.
Interviewer: About how many dollars
do you think this is worth?
Thousands I would say.
Yeah, yeah, but this one's most important (laughs).
There's a law allowing physicians and patients
to try something experimental
If the currently available medications aren't working.
it's called the Right to Try law,
and this is part of that.
It's not really a clinical trial.
It's really kind of a alternative, experimental,
investigational treatment for individuals
whose virus is not responding well,
and if their results are promising,
then you can present it to the FDA
and do a real clinical trial.
The right to try. It's my body.
It's my body. What I choose to do with it,
and just gathering that information for these people
is my small way of being a part
of hopefully finding a cure.
You know, the tragedy is,
is there are more people living with HIV
in the US today than there ever has been in history,
but it's not something that is hitting
the front pages anymore.
(big band music)
My name is Jeffrey and I'm Miss Nevada, Miss Lotta Slots.
(applause)
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,
please help me welcome, from the Sahara Hotel, Lotta Slots.
I first started becoming involved
with Best in Drag show in 1996.
Alexis Pitman asked me to be a part of it,
and it was this fundraiser to raise money
for people living with AIDS who needed help
with housing or food or paying their bills.
Announcer: Our girl, Miss Nevada.
Now, wait a minute.
Exactly how did she win the Miss Nevada Pageant?
Pageant Host: Honey, that girl is so lucky,
there is a horse shoe up her ass. Honey, oh.
Announcer: Explains that walk, doesn't it?
Six, seven, then eight.
For an eight and a two, and then hold up.
Jeffrey's participation in the Best in Drag Show.
over the past 25 years has been extraordinary
and he is part of a group of men
that have raised over $5 million for this agency.
When he took over the show,
it was a monumental undertaking because it's 200 volunteers.
It's like wrangling cats, but the point is,
is that Jeffrey has made a commitment
to make sure that the show is his very best
that it can possibly be year in and year out.
He's synonymous today with the Best in Drag Show.
We need to keep pushing for more funding,
getting involved in raising money,
and supporting groups like Aid for AIDS,
and as my great, great friend, Sammy Davis Jr. told me,
(crowd laughs)
"What the world needs now is love sweet love."
(applause)
[Event Host] That's the most we've ever raised.
The most it's ever been before. Thank you so much.
It's a treatable disease,
and so I believe this is all
about monopoly and making money.
Even with this trial that I'm on,
there are five or six others happening, too.
There are two schools of thought
about why they're secretive.
Number one is to maintain the integrity,
and then there is a school of thinking
that says drug companies are in the business
of treating diseases, not necessarily curing diseases,
so those who may be looking to actually cure a disease
may be at risk of being bought out,
having their process challenged.
Interviewer: Are you nervous at all?
I'm always nervous when I come here.
I think we're getting test results today,
but we're getting the whole kit and caboodle, yeah.
They talk about this race to find a cure,
and I don't know if that's true anymore,
and we see it even with PrEP.
(sad music)
When I think about the fact that Truvada for PrEP
is only getting to 10% of the people that need it,
What about the other 90%?
What about their families?
Gilliad has shown as,
as unfortunately many other big pharmaceutical companies
have shown, that they're willing to put profits
over patient health.
So the list price is almost $2,000 in the United States.
Why is it $8 in Australia?
Truvada, it still has patent protection
in the United States and in the rest of the world,
it is generic.
I can't comment on the price in Australia
of the generic medicines.
In Australia, PrEP is $8 a month.
In the United States, it's almost $2,000 a month.
(crickets chirping)
Yeah, feeling lousy after eight hours
of (coughs) doing a kind of,
having somebody else's healthy cells
injected into me,
and then I came home and I was okay,
and they were surprised that I wasn't a lot more sick.
Creating new immunity is something that
the only way we've ever done that
is by taking people who have life-threatening cancers
and wiping out their immune system
with very highly toxic chemotherapy,
and during this period of time,
they are at tremendous risk of death,
tremendous risk of death,
probably about a 30 to 40% chance of dying.
So they, this kind of procedure is not one
that's going to be done for the masses.
We're seeing whether or not we can do
a kind of a stem cell transplant,
not a full one where we wipe his immune system
out completely, because we don't want to do that to him.
(sad music)
This is not about the vilifying of profit.
This is about the vilifying of choosing profit over people,
and if we know that a new person is infected
every 15 minutes and we've been here two and a half hours,
that's 10 more people who have been infected.
The more time we waste, the more lives that we are losing.
It's been a rough week.
So, it was a week of (exhales)
chemo, learning how to inject myself with the chemo,
and going in and getting the vaccine also,
and then all of a sudden it hit like,
between the chills and the fever,
and shitting on myself, and throwing up,
and everything else,
and I just keep saying, "what have I done?"
(water running)
(crickets chirping)
I was just stuck here. I couldn't move.
The only way I was going out was to walk my dog.
A couple of times,
I'd just be walking down the street
and all of a sudden my body would just start
shitting on itself without even knowing
what was happening,
and then I would think what would happen to me if I died,
and then I would think, then I would think (laughs),
"who would be mad, who would be sad,"
"and who would be happy that I was dead?"
(laughs)
That's what I would think about, yeah.
(laughs)
Yeah, that's what happens when you have a fever.
(laughs)
(melancholy music)
My friends and I were just sitting around waiting
to see who was going to die first,
and we watched them.
We watched our friends go one by one by one,
we took care of them. We were bedside with them.
We were feeding them. We were changing all that
I don't want to say trauma, but it was, it was rough.
It was rough,
and these men were dying with dignity and humor.
Oh my God, humor.
I don't want people to forget their names,
because sometimes, some days I do.
I forget about them.
(sad music)
I'm always busy doing things and going places and stuff,
and this really slowed it down, you know,
and each day I feel better, but at the worst of it,
I was like, "what the fuck did I do?"
and there's nobody to blame, but myself,
so it's not like you can go for a sympathy with anybody,
(laughs) so, and it kinda just kinda freaks people out
that you're just playing with your body this way.
(birds chirping)
It all goes back to the initial patent
that Gilead was able to secure
on the pro-drug Tenofovir.
Their sole control over this molecule
from the mid nineties has led to their hold
over the HIV medication market.
It's a common theme to do evergreening,
which is when a patent holder will make small tweaks
to the patent to extend their exclusivity period
and keep drug prices high.
The public, we, the people develop this drug.
We paid for this drug.
We led and developed all of the grounding patents,
and then that patent has been privatized,
and as a result, people are, are dying for no reason,
for no reason.
It is a reasonable question,
what patent length should be.
I'd like to have that conversation and dialogue.
I don't know whether it should be one year, five years,
17 years. I don't know.
Let's have that debate.
Interviewer: How are you feeling?
You know what? Okay. (coughs)
Yeah, tired, exhausted,
So, I'm hoping a little coffee
will make me feel better.
(inhales)
I think that survivor guilt
plays a huge part in a lot of our lives,
and I think one of the ways that it plays out
is in being so willing to do whatever it takes
to find a cure so that our existence
on the planet wasn't in vain.
How are you?
I'm good.
Greg approached me to also do the trial
and I was open to the possibilities
and I went in and I said, "nah, I can't."
Right.
"I can't right now."
You can't.
Yeah, and you said yes.
Yeah.
There are my core group of friends,
there were a few of them that were just like,
"What are you doing?"
"This isn't proven. You don't look well."
"You're really sick. What are you thinking?"
Jeffrey was having night sweats.
He was throwing up.
He was having chills.
He wasn't able to get out of bed,
and I'm thinking to myself, "I can't do that right now,"
and I just look at Jeffrey again,
and I just go, "right on baby."
It takes a strong constitution
and that's my best friend.
That's how he rolls.
(bright music)
Obviously, companies are going to be profit motivated,
but when that intersects with public health
and with the welfare of individuals,
the question becomes, should there be mechanisms,
whether it be the law or whether it be legislative change
where a pharmaceutical company should be held accountable,
where it makes a decision solely based on profit,
or is there an additional obligation that is owed
because it concerns public health and individual health.
I am not getting paid.
It's all volunteer
and people are surprised by that.
I'm four months into this trial. I'm broke.
I never really planned for the future.
because I never really thought that I would be here.
I was supposed to go to DC back in February
when my viral load were so great,
and then with this whole COVID pandemic situation,
they kept putting it off,
but now the scientists who came up with this vaccine
has also been pulled into finding a cure for COVID,
and so I get it, but it's like, okay,
where do I fit into all this?
And where, what am I doing?
That always, I'm afraid that all that this work
and this whole lifestyle change this last year
would be affected and that it would be discounted,
yeah, so I would assume that it's all in order,
but then who knows?
Interviewer: How are you feeling
about Best in Drag this year?
Good, excited, excited.
There's a lot going on.
In this world of COVID, we are rehearsing
in a parking lot in Eagle Rock to keep everybody safe.
And it's about producing an opening number
that is social distancing.
We won't be dancing on top of each other.
I noticed my concentration is a little off
with all of it because it's so hard to think sometimes
in this Groundhog's Day of COVID right now,
I'm just grateful that I'm physically able to do what I do,
and I can ask for help if I need it.
The people that are so affected by this disease
are the ones that, you know,
can't afford medication or can't get medication,
and typically tend to be minorities.
They tend to be poor.
They tend to be homeless,
and these are members of society
that the majority of society wants to overlook,
and when you've got a medication that some wealthier people
can afford, it's hard to put a spotlight
on the ones that actually need it,
and that are suffering from this disease.
(intense music)
I think about the early days, the eighties,
the nine, you know, a PLA dance-a-thon,
the Paws benefit, pets are wonderful support,
and even the Commitment to Life,
or they'd honor Barbara Streisand or Elizabeth Taylor
and then charge a gazillion dollars to go,
and none of that's happening anymore.
It went from being very high visibility
and lots of press stuff to you never know
if it's going to make it with the AP or anything.
Other diseases that have taken over,
you know, more important.
People's lives are not commodities.
You can say, "how much is this phone worth to you?"
and you can say, "a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars."
You can buy a Nokia phone. You can not have a phone at all,
but you cannot ask the question,
"How much will you pay to be alive?"
"How much will you pay to live?"
because the answer is "everything."
You will pay $10,
you'll pay a thousand dollars.
You will go into debt,
you will do anything to live,
and that is what makes the price of medicine
different than the price of an iPhone.
Announcer: Miss Nevada, Lotta Slots!
We have the scientific tools to end this HIV epidemic,
and we are fortunate that pharma has developed
these drugs to get us there.
They have already profited enormously.
Now, in the spirit of saving lives,
I simply ask that these drugs be reasonably priced
so that those most marginalized and at risk
can reap their benefit.
I hope that some of these companies,
including Gilead will begin to do the right thing.
It's never too late for that. Thank you.
You ready to do this?
Yes.
Interviewer: Today's the final day.
Hopefully, hopefully.
Interviewer: How long do you think you'll be here?
Think I'm here for a couple hours. I know that.
That's what they told me. So--
Interviewer: Are you nervous?
I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I'm irritated.
I just want to get this done.
I've been reflecting a lot on the last year
and this commitment and what am I doing
and why am I doing this,
and getting back to my life
and remember that I've been
going through this process through a pandemic,
so it has to, I have to surrender, you know,
my character defect of lack of patience.
That's, I'm feeling a little bratty today,
so that's what anyone can (laughs)
This is my acting shirt (laughs)
I'm feeling like a warrior today.
Interviewer: Yeah.
I don't want to cuss anybody out though.
(Interviewer laughs)
(hopeful music)
With this whole blood work that I did today,
That's new information, you know,
we'll see, is this another year of a commitment
or am I done?
Nobody's mentioned it to me or told me, thank you.
Thank you for your service (laughs).
Here's that fruit basket, you know, nothing like that,
so I never, it's stressful,
and it always concerns me that,
what if this whole situation that I've been involved with
for the last year and a half is them selling it
to some conglomerate or big pharma,
and by my volunteering my time, and my body,
and everything this last year,
and then they benefited the billions and I don't know what
it all means anymore, I don't.
Being involved with this trial
has made me even more baffled by the whole process.
* 86,400 seconds in a day *
* I swear lately, most of them have been a waste *
* I feel them come and go, bury my mistakes. *
* But time just goes on and on in a way *
* if I had one day left to live, *
* And if the stars went out on me, the truth is *
* Yeah, There's so much I'd say and do *
* If I nothing lose, nah, nothing to lose *
* Oh, I'd call my mother and tell her I'm sorry *
* And never call her back *
* I'd pour my heart and soul out into a letter *
* And send it to my dad *
* Like, oh my god, the time I've wasted lost in my head, *
* Let me leave this world with the hate behind me *
* And take the love instead *
* Give me only love, only love *
* Let me leave this world with the hate behind me *
* And take the love instead *
* Give me only love, only love, only love *
* Give me only love, only love *
* Only love, only love, only love *
* Let me leave this world with the hate behind me *
* Only the love instead *
* Let me leave this world with the hate behind me *
* And take the love instead *
* Give me only love, only love *