But officials have said they charge high prices to make up for research and development costs. On the Pfizer web site, a series of company statements argue that at least 80 percent of a price increase can be attributed to increased consumption and the costs associated with new treatments. And they note that many of their drugs, particularly antidepressants, decline in value from their launch prices. Finally, they argue that country-to-country comparisons of prices are far to simple to be valid measurements of cost and value.

The protesters respond that research and development is actually publicly subsidized and the high prices compensate for advertisements and marketing.

"The intellectual property system in the U.S. gives discoveries to pharmaceutical companies to patent them...it's public risk for private gain," said Sheldon Krimsky, a doctor at Tufts University.

"To me, AIDS represents worldwide inequality that is played out in the health sector more than anywhere else," Taylor said.

Kennedy School student G. Imani Duncan said the protest was "an issue about morality, or lack thereof."

Harvard students in particular should protest, Taylor said, because the University owns about millions of dollars of Pfizer stock.

"Harvard is not a neutral, innocent player in this," Taylor said. "We can use shareholder activism to change corporate policy."