AHF proposes innovative solution to resolve AIDS drug crisis in Florida

As the State of Florida grapples with a budget shortfall that is crippling its AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and forcing the state to place more than 1,300 low-income Floridians on waiting lists to access lifesaving AIDS medications, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has proposed an innovative solution to state health officials and seven leading AIDS drug companies that would create a public/private partnership to resolve the drug crisis and get vulnerable Florida AIDS patients on to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment.

“The program AHF is proposing will be implemented at no cost to patients, the State of Florida, and the pharmaceutical companies”

Under AHF's proposal, the AIDS drug companies—all of which already have some form of patient assistance programs for low-income patients in need of medications—would provide free drugs to Florida patients on waiting lists, and AHF, along with other participating pharmacies, would absorb the cost of dispensing the drugs by waiving dispensing fees and other applicable service fees. AHF, which currently serves more than 15,000 Floridians living with HIV/AIDS through a variety of programs including eight AHF Pharmacies located throughout the state, has proposed this program to Florida health officials because the state currently has the largest ADAP waiting list as well as the third highest HIV population in the country. As the largest AIDS medical provider in Florida, AHF also has the expertise and available resources to immediately implement such a program statewide.

"To address the AIDS drug crisis in Florida, AHF is proposing a program that streamlines the drug donation process by centralizing the availability of free treatment for patients at the pharmacy level," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "We propose utilizing available resources—free donated medications from all the major AIDS drug companies—coupled with the streamlined dispensing of the drugs via AHF's own and other pharmacies located throughout Florida. By better harnessing the goodwill of these drug companies, the State of Florida can manage its growing and potentially deadly AIDS drug crisis in an innovative and workable manner."

AHF reached out to Florida state health officials with an initial proposal for the drug donation/pharmacy services donation plan early last week; AHF then contacted the seven leading AIDS drug companies with its proposal toward the end of the week. The drug companies, and their existing patient assistance programs include: Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Patient Assistance Foundation); Boehringer-Ingelheim (Cares Foundation Patient Assistance Program); Bristol-Myers Squibb (Access Virology Program); Gilead Sciences (the Advancing Access Program and Atripla Patient Assistance Program); Merck (HIV Support Program); Tibotec (Johnson & Johnson Patient Assistance Foundation) and ViiV Healthcare (the Bridges to Access Program).

In the letter to the AIDS drug companies, AHF President Michael Weinstein noted,

"This program is not intended to supplement the entirety of your existing patient assistance programs for AIDS drugs. However, AHF has seen firsthand that many aspects of the network of assistance programs are not workable for AIDS patients on waiting lists. For example, it can take significant time to navigate the paperwork necessary to get medication from each company's assistance program. As a result, some patients choose to stop their treatment altogether rather than attempt to navigate this process. This has devastating consequences for the health of patients, but it is easily avoidable. Additionally, each company's drugs are delivered differently and there is not a single medication profile available for these patients. Combination medications often arrive separately and can cause a patient to start taking one part of the combination (when it arrives) before the balance of the profile is delivered.

The program we are proposing would enable patients on waiting lists to receive all their medications from a single pharmacist in a timely manner. Patients would have access to a pharmacist to answer questions they may have about their medications and the pharmacist would be able to monitor the patient's complete drug profile for any possible adverse drug interactions. Under our plan, all of this would be provided at no cost to [each respective drug company]."

"The program AHF is proposing will be implemented at no cost to patients, the State of Florida, and the pharmaceutical companies," said Michael Kahane, Southern Bureau Chief for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "AHF's proposed program is only for patients on Florida's waiting list. Any willing pharmacy is welcome to participate in this program. Participating pharmacies will dispense the drugs to patients at pharmacy locations. In addition, pharmacies will provide shipping and delivery services for patients who need it. AHF and other participating pharmacies will agree to waive all dispensing fees and other applicable fees related to these services. With more than one-third the total number of people on ADAP waiting lists nationwide, we see this as a practical solution to Florida's growing AIDS drug crisis."

Under AHF's proposal, at the State level, clients who are eligible will be referred to the program by ADAP staff:

• The patient will bring his or her prescription along with the wait list verification letter to a participating pharmacy at which they will fill their prescriptions.
• Participating pharmacies will immediately fill these prescriptions for clients with a waiting list letter.
• New Florida patients facing placement on an ADAP waiting list would also be eligible for the program. (At present, Florida adds between 350-450 new patients to its ADAP waiting list each month)

The AIDS Drug Assistance Program is a Federal/State program that pays for life-saving AIDS drugs for low-income Americans. Nationwide, ADAPs serve over 165,000 people, accounting for one third of people on AIDS treatment in the U.S. Unfortunately, the need for these programs expands every year, as more and more people become infected and diagnosed with HIV/AIDS; each year thousands of newly diagnosed HIV patients turn to ADAPs because they cannot afford their medicines.

On June 1^st, Florida became the twelfth state—and the first high-prevalence state, as it ranks third in the nation for the number of reported cases—to institute a waiting list for patients to receive lifesaving AIDS drugs. As of August 27^th, there were 1,361 Floridians on the state's ADAP waiting list out of a total of 3,337 people on waiting lists in 13 states.