Archive by category | AIDS

Gilead under pressure to produce stand-alone version of new HIV drug

Gilead under pressure to produce stand-alone version of new HIV drug

In 2001, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a new HIV medication called tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). Patient advocates hailed the decision, noting that it represented the first novel antiviral agent to get the green light after the FDA turned down a similar drug  two years earlier. But a lot changes in a decade. For one thing, the maker of TDF, Gilead Sciences of Foster City, California, has a newer, better formulation of tenofovir, called tenofovir alafenamide (TAF). Meanwhile, patient advocates at the International AIDS Society Conference in Kuala Lumpur this week are crying foul that the company isn’t working on a stand-alone version of TAF and plans to sell it only in expensive combination pills.  Read more

New genetic analysis narrows HIV vaccine targets

New genetic analysis narrows HIV vaccine targets

The road to a protective HIV vaccine has not been easy thus far. The failed STEP trial, halted in 2007, was just one major trip-up among several, and two years later the massive RV144 trial from Thailand spurred controversy about efficacy rates. Part of the problem is that researchers have long struggled over the best target for the HIV vaccine.  Read more

Combination drug ‘sprinkles’ in the works for infants with HIV

Combination drug ‘sprinkles’ in the works for infants with HIV

WASHINGTON, DC — Last year, 330,000 infants were born infected with HIV, many of whom will succumb to the disease unless more baby-friendly formulations of antiretrovirals become available, AIDS advocates warned here yesterday at the International AIDS Society conference. “We know that existing treatments are very often difficult to administer,” Bernard Pécoul, executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a Geneva-based non-profit that works to foster new treatments, told meeting attendees.  Read more