Glaxo Guts Ghana’s Import of Generic Combivir and Prepares for Battle
TAGline • 2000December 2000 The arguments over affordable life-saving medicines for the developing world intensified late last month when it was revealed that Glaxo-Wellcome has blocked the importation of inexpensive generic knock-offs of its premier AIDS drug, Combivir, into Ghana (a small country in West Africa). The conflict is the latest skirmish in one of the most…
While You Were Sleeping: An African AIDS Aid Chronology
TAGline • 2000An African AIDS Aid Chronology September 2000 May 12, 1999 Bristol-Myers announces five-year donation of $100 million to fight AIDS in Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and South Africa. April 4, 2000 Pfizer offers free fluconazole to South Africans with AIDS suffering from cryptococcal meningitis. May 11 Five pharmaceutical companies (Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers, Merck, Glaxo and…
Taking it to the Street: Thousands Strong, Fledgling South African Activist Group Sends Tremors Around the Globe
TAGline • 2000Thousands Strong, Fledgling South African Activist Group Sends Tremors Around the Globe September 2000 “Defiance Campaign” in the Offing Sunday afternoon as the Durban conference was just gearing up, some five thousand demonstrators singing, chanting and dancing marched from Durban City Hall to the stadium, calling on world pharmaceutical makers to cede the Third World…
Generic Jabberwocky: Quality Control of Brazilian-Made Antivirals
TAGline • 2000Quality Control of Brazilian-Made Antivirals By Mark Harrington December 2000 Before our talks I asked Jorge Bermudez(1) about the quality control of the Brazilian-made antivirals. He said it was not a problem and that results of bioequivalence studies would soon be made public. This turned out to be a significant bone of contention. Ezio Távora…
Being There: Durban Delegates Return Stateside, Fired Up and Ready to Jump Back Into the Fray
TAGline • 2000Durban Delegates Return Stateside, Fired Up and Ready to Jump Back Into the Fray September 2000 A Mouse Roars “The answer does not lie with donations or price cuts from drug companies but rather with the mass production of quality generics. This could result in the cost of a year’s antiretroviral treatment being cut to…
Bonanza: With Demand for Treatment Breaks at Record Level, Market for Tiny, Uninterpretable Studies Flourishes
TAGline • 2000With Demand for Treatment Breaks at Record Level, Market for Tiny, Uninterpretable Studies Flourishes April 2000 Diverse Definitions At least eighteen studies and speeches presented at the Seventh Retrovirus Conference included discussions related to treatment interruptions (TIs) and structured treatment interruptions (STIs) in various HIV infected populations — including primary HIV infection (three papers), chronic…
Structured Treatment Interruptions (STIs) from the Seventh Retrovirus Conference, 2000
Publication • 2000February 2000 New York, NY by Mark Harrington At least 18 studies and speeches presented at the Seventh Retrovirus Conference included discussions related to treatment interruptions (TIs) and structured treatment interruptions (STIs) in various HIV infected populations — including primary HIV infection (three papers), chronic and virally suppressed (13 papers), and chronic and unsuppressed (two…
Policy Report on Application for Ageneras Approval
Publication • 1999February 19, 1999 Introduction If one should hear yawns emanating from the consecrated halls of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it’s possible that the team evaluating the New Drug Application (NDA) for Agenerase™ brand amprenavir is responsible. The HIV treatment community seems equally detached as it looks ahead to the seemingly more potent ABT-378…
Life Wish: AZT Monotherapy Veteran Checks out Chemotherapeutic Quitsville and Lives to Tell About It
TAGline • 1999AZT Monotherapy Veteran Checks out Chemotherapeutic Quitsville and Lives to Tell About It Don’t try this at home In a recent highly unscientific and egregiously self-selective poll of HAART-experienced individuals (N=15) in New York City (most of them aging activists), a surprising 33% were no longer on their triple or quadruple or “mega-HAART” antiretroviral combinations.…
Down in Flames: Crypto Treatment Hopes Dashed as Sloppy, Divisive Unimed Fails to Provide Clean Data — or Proof of Efficacy
TAGline • 1998Crypto Treatment Hopes Dashed as Sloppy, Divisive Unimed Fails to Provide Clean Data — or Proof of Efficacy Unimed’s ugly ultimatum On May 6th, the FDA’s Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee met to consider an application for approval of Unimed Pharmaceuticals’ cryptosporidiosis treatment, nitazoxanide (NTZ), for the treatment of cryptosporidial diarrhea in PWAs. TAG’s Laura Morrison…