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

Four-in-one HIV pill may be exception among combination drugs

Four-in-one HIV pill may be exception among combination drugs

By Hannah Waters The 1960s cartoon The Jetsons envisioned a future where single pills provided the same nutrition, taste and satiation as food that required chewing. That time-saving tablet remains a pipe dream, but the drugmaker Gilead is trying to deliver a similarly inspired pill for HIV medicines. On 27 October, the California company submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its four-in-one HIV pill, which, if approved, would contain more medicines than any pill currently on the US market. The so-called ‘Quad’ pill promises the same virus-controlling ability as the four drugs separately but  … Read more

A dance with death: Alvin Ailey premieres hip-hop ballet inspired by AIDS

A dance with death: Alvin Ailey premieres hip-hop ballet inspired by AIDS

Dance companies and drugmakers are strange bedfellows. For the most part, leotard-wearing dancers and lab-coated scientists remain firmly footed in different professional spheres. But at 8pm last night, the curtain went up on a unique collaboration. In honor of World AIDS Day, New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre partnered to produce an original dance performance inspired by the stories of people living with HIV. The New York City Center in Manhattan was sold out and buzzing with excitement for the opening. In the audience for the show’s premiere were the ten people whose stories  … Read more

UNAIDS-backed reports sing the same tune but stay silent on funding crunch

UNAIDS-backed reports sing the same tune but stay silent on funding crunch

Today is World AIDS Day, and in the run-up to the date this year, UN agencies published two reports on the state of the HIV epidemic. For the most part, the good news from these reports has captured the headlines: Topping the list of heartening statistics, 47% of people in low and middle-income countries now have access to anti-retroviral treatment (ART), up 9% from the number covered in 2009. But a few cracks lie beneath the positive numbers. In the past week, The Economist chided the UN for publishing the two reports, one on 21 November from the Joint United  … Read more

PrEP trial successes prompt cost-effectiveness questions

By Roxanne Khamsi Clinical trial data are starting to pour in demonstrating that the HIV prevention strategy known as ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’ is an effective way of keeping people at high risk of infection disease free. In July, researchers reported at the International AIDS Society Conference in Rome that taking an antiretroviral drug called Truvada offered a 73% protection rate for heterosexual couples in East Africa in which only one person had HIV. At the same meeting, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also announced trial results demonstrating a 63% reduction in transmission among young adults in Botswana taking  … Read more