HIV PROJECT NEWS

Sign-on Request: Letter to Gilead - Tenefovir Alafenamide Fumarate (TAF)
13 June 2013 - Treatment Action Group (TAG), in collaboration with HIV i-Base and Project Inform, is requesting organizational and individual sign-ons to a letter urging Gilead Sciences to develop a stand-alone
formulation of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF), an experimental prodrug of the nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor tenofovir.

The Immune System, HIV, and Aging
3 June 2013 - Little more than a decade ago, it was almost inconceivable that the issue of aging with HIV infection would emerge as an important concern. But it has now become clear that combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) can suppress virus replication for many years—likely for life—in most people who can access the drugs, and the opportunistic infections that were once the primary causes of illness have largely evanesced everywhere treatment is available. Morbidity and mortality from HIV infection has plummeted, and the survival of HIV-positive individuals is edging ever closer to that of comparable HIV-negative people. With the specter of AIDS having finally been chased from the near horizon, attention has turned to health problems that may lie further down the road.

Revitalizing the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy
Meeting Report and Action Plan
15 April 2013 - On December 11–12, 2012, in Washington, D.C., Treatment Action Group (TAG) hosted a meeting of HIV advocates, service providers, and researchers from across the United States (U.S.) to review the current state of the national HIV response and discuss how to revitalize the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). Meeting participants reviewed the latest data, discussed the changing landscape of the HIV response, and developed recommendations for continued and expedited progress. The Meeting Report summarizes the presentations and discussions, and outlines the key recommendations from participants. The Action Plan incorporates the recommendations from the meeting report.
 

Funding Scientific Innovation: Global Investments in HIV Treatment Research and Development in 2010 and 2011

6 March, 2013 - Advances in HIV treatment research in 2010 and 2011 saw improvement in treatment regimens and strategies, and reinvigorated optimism for finding a cure. In 2012, TAG and AVAC, with financial support from UNAIDS, put forth a collaborative effort to analyze investment trends in HIV treatment research and development (R&D) in 2010 and 2011.

Micardis Sign-on Letter to Boehringer Ingelheim
30 November, 2012 - Dear Dr. Piliero: We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, urge Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals to reconsider its negative decision to provide free telmisartan (Micardis) and matching placebo to the AIDS Clinical Trials Group so that it may move forward with Study A5317, a multicenter trial evaluating the effects of telmisartan on fibrotic and inflammatory contributors to end-organ disease in HIV-infected patients well controlled on antiretroviral therapy.

2012 PIPELINE REPORT

HIV, Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), and Tuberculosis (TB) Drugs, Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Preventive Technologies in Development

22 July 2012 - Visit our new website www.PipelineReport.org to:

• Read the report online
• Download individual chapters as PDFs
• Browse for specific information by agent

Letter Opposing a Proposed Low-dose Stavudine Trial
14 December 2011
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gates, We write as people with HIV and community activists with serious and unresolved concerns about the proposed clinical trial comparing stavudine at 20 mg to tenofovir. Although we are broadly very supportive of dose optimisation strategies, we do not support this trial; we do not think that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation should support it; nor do we think it should proceed. Several of us have discussed this with your representatives both formally and informally over the past months. Those of us who met with your representatives on 19 July 2011 at the International AIDS Society conference in Rome received no response to the concerns we raised. We summarise our objections as follows:

HIV Cure-Related Research Workshop Report 

October 2011 - The meeting, sponsored by the AIDS Policy Project, amfAR, Project Inform, and TAG, featured an overview of HIV latency, persistence, and eradication research; lessons from past clinical trials; a review of current or impending trials; and a full discussion of issues including trial design, appropriate markers and endpoints, and development of better assays. Participants heard a presentation on the ethics of clinical trials and discussed the federal regulatory process and how best to engage the several branches of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a coordinated and collaborative way to work together to ensure that cure-related clinical trials proceed expeditiously, ethically, and safely.

2011 Pipeline Report - Second Edition

HIV, Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), and Tuberculosis Drugs, Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Preventive Technologies in Development

September 2011 - As this i-Base and TAG 2011 Pipeline Report, Second Edition, makes clear, medically, the prospect for people with HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) to live long and healthy lives—and in the cases of HCV and TB, to be cured rapidly with safe, effective, oral combination therapy—has never been better.

An Exploratory Analysis of HIV Treatment Research and Development Investments in 2009

July 2011 - The HIV treatment research landscape is changing. Thanks to recent treatment scale-up and prevention science breakthroughs and the new global treatment target of 15 million by 2015, there is real momentum to bring the epidemic under control and ultimately end it. To capitalize on these scientific gains, continued investment and innovation are necessary to prevent new infections, to ensure people currently on treatment are able to continue, and to scale up treatment to reach all those who will benefit from earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy. This report from TAG, UNAIDS, and the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition documents $2.46 billion in HIV-related research investments.