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BMS to join ranks of AIDS drug companies to offer price concessions

Bristol-Myers Squibb will soon announce an agreement that will provide additional cost savings to cash-strapped ADAPs nationwide. The agreement, with the ADAP Crisis Task Force (ACTF) of the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors, is expected to be announced any day. BMS has been the target of a sustained advocacy campaign led by AHF over its pricing of its key AIDS drug Reyataz.

7 Aug 2010

Bloomberg Businessweek explores growing trend in pharma to license, donate HIV drugs

"Pharmaceutical companies, once blasted as uncaring or downright greedy for charging thousands of dollars for a year's worth of AIDS medicines … in poor countries, lately have been slashing prices and licensing their drugs for free or nominal cost to nonprofits or local manufacturers in the developing world," Bloomberg BusinessWeek writes in an analysis piece that examines how this trend, combined with a growing capability among aid agencies to distribute drugs, has the potential to increase access to HIV/AIDS drugs worldwide.

7 Aug 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

According to a Lancet Comment, "alcohol remains conspicuously absent from the larger field of research and programming in HIV and substance use. ... Patterns of hazardous alcohol consumption prevail in countries with the most severe HIV epidemics, notably eastern and southern Africa." In addition, "hazardous drinking patterns also dominate in the concentrated epidemics of eastern Europe and Asia, where alcohol use by injecting drug users and other marginalised groups might be an additional barrier to effective efforts to prevent HIV infection."

7 Aug 2010

Merck's two pivotal boceprevir Phase III registration studies for chronic HCV meet primary endpoint

Merck reported that two pivotal Phase III registration studies for boceprevir, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, have been completed and met the primary endpoints: in both studies in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection, the addition of boceprevir to treatment with PEGINTRON® and REBETOL® significantly increased the number of patients who achieved sustained virologic response, compared to control groups that received Peg/riba plus placebo.

5 Aug 2010

AHF praises NJ for saving drug program, criticizes BMS for refusal to cut prices for ADAPs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) lauded innovative New Jersey state health officials who were able to keep providing nearly 1,000 AIDS patients throughout the state with access to lifesaving antiretroviral medications with an 11th hour fix to a struggling state AIDS drug distribution program that was set to cut them from the program's eligibility rolls as of Sunday, August 1st.

3 Aug 2010

Merck reports strong bottom-line performance in second quarter

Merck & Co., Inc. today announced financial results for the second quarter of 2010. The company reported non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share (EPS) for the second quarter of $0.86, which excludes purchase accounting adjustments, merger-related expenses, restructuring costs and the gain on AstraZeneca's asset option exercise. Second-quarter GAAP EPS was $0.24.

2 Aug 2010

Opinions: IDUs and HIV; AIDS 2010; International Violence Against Women Act

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Evan Wood, associate professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, writes about the Vienna Declaration, a document he helped to draft, that calls for international leaders to revise drug policies to incorporate greater scientific evidence and promote HIV prevention, treatment and care for drug users.

31 Jul 2010

AIDS 2010 follow-up coverage: Global HIV/AIDS funding; HIV/AIDS studies, releases

Media outlets continued to reflect on news from the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010, which attracted over 19,000 participants from 197 countries to Vienna last week, according to the conference blog.

30 Jul 2010

First Edition: July 29, 2010

In today's headlines, a new poll shows opposition to health reform declining, and Peter Orszag makes his exit as budget chief -- still pressing lawmakers to make tough budget choices while implementing the new law.

29 Jul 2010

PFSCM wins Supply Chain Innovation Award, Best Value Supply Chain Provider Award

The Partnership for Supply Chain Management, a partner of the U.S. Agency for International Development under the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has won two prestigious awards for groundbreaking work on PEPFAR's Supply Chain Management System. PFSCM received the Supply Chain Innovation Award and Best Value Supply Chain Provider Award during the European Supply Chain and Logistics Summit held in Prague.

29 Jul 2010

CMX157 shows potential to suppress replication of HIV in Phase 1 clinical trial

Chimerix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing orally-available antiviral therapeutics, today announced the publication of research results demonstrating the potential of CMX157 (hexadecyloxypropyl tenofovir) to effectively suppress replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that cannot be treated with currently available nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), including tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Viread), due to the development of multi-drug resistance. Earlier this year, Chimerix initiated a dose-escalating Phase 1 clinical trial of CMX-157 to evaluate drug safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics.

29 Jul 2010

Positive results from study with Genome Sequencer FLX System for HIV drug-resistant mutation detection

454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, has announced promising new results from a multi-site collaborative research study which used the company's Genome Sequencer FLX System to perform HIV drug-resistant mutation detection.

28 Jul 2010

New York Times examines questions left unanswered by microbicide trial

The New York Times examines a set of questions raised by news out of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 last week that a microbicide gel containing the antiretroviral tenofovir used by women before and after sex helped reduce their risk of HIV infection by 39 percent.

28 Jul 2010

Merck signs non-exclusive license agreement with LabCorp for commercialization of genetic test

Merck announced a non-exclusive license agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings for the commercialization of a genetic test that may help predict the response of patients with Hepatitis C virus infection to peginterferon alpha-based therapy.

28 Jul 2010

Global Fund director calls on emerging countries to invest more in programs to reduce HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria at AIDS 2010

On the final day of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 Friday, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria called upon "China, India and other fast-growing economies" to chip in to help close the funding gap in efforts to battle HIV/AIDS, Agence France-Presse reports. "Until now, these countries have been recipients of AIDS funds, not donors," the news service writes.

27 Jul 2010

Albert Einstein College of Medicine receives research grant to help people with MDR-TB

For the third time in four months, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University a research grant aimed at helping people infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Taken together, all three NIH grants total $8.57 million.

27 Jul 2010

AHF denies BMS sales reprepresentatives access to healthcare centers

Today AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) announced that it has banned pharmaceutical sales representatives from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) from calling on AHF's medical providers and staff in its sixteen U.S. healthcare centers. The decision is based on BMS' refusal to lower the price of its key AIDS drug Reyataz for cash-strapped AIDS Drug Assistance Programs.

27 Jul 2010

Tibotec submits NDA for TMC278 anti-HIV compound to FDA

Tibotec Pharmaceuticals today announced the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for TMC278 (rilpivirine), an investigational non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), being studied for once-daily use with other antiretroviral agents in treatment-naive HIV-1-infected adults. If approved, TMC278 will be the third anti-HIV compound to be introduced by Tibotec Pharmaceuticals.

26 Jul 2010

Toolkits to facilitate implementation of new WHO guidelines for reducing HIV infections issued

At the XVIII International AIDS Conference, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation has issued the first of a series of three linked toolkits to facilitate the adaptation and implementation of the revised World Health Organization recommendations for four technical areas: antiretroviral drugs for treating pregnant women and preventing HIV infection in infants, infant feeding in the context of HIV, and antiretroviral treatment for children, adolescents, and adults.

26 Jul 2010

AIDS 2010: Obama, Clinton vow U.S. support to global fight against HIV/AIDS

During the closing ceremonies of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010, President Barack Obama "on Friday pledged to redouble efforts to fight HIV and AIDS through his Global Health Initiative, despite dealing with economic hard times in the wake of a global recession," Reuters reports. According to the news service, "Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said their focus was on a broad, sustainable and effective approach to the global epidemic" (Kelland, 7/23).

26 Jul 2010

Antiretroviral News and Research

BMS to join ranks of AIDS drug companies to offer price concessions

Bloomberg Businessweek explores growing trend in pharma to license, donate HIV drugs

Recent releases in Global Health

Merck's two pivotal boceprevir Phase III registration studies for chronic HCV meet primary endpoint

AHF praises NJ for saving drug program, criticizes BMS for refusal to cut prices for ADAPs

Merck reports strong bottom-line performance in second quarter

Opinions: IDUs and HIV; AIDS 2010; International Violence Against Women Act

AIDS 2010 follow-up coverage: Global HIV/AIDS funding; HIV/AIDS studies, releases

First Edition: July 29, 2010

PFSCM wins Supply Chain Innovation Award, Best Value Supply Chain Provider Award

CMX157 shows potential to suppress replication of HIV in Phase 1 clinical trial

Positive results from study with Genome Sequencer FLX System for HIV drug-resistant mutation detection

New York Times examines questions left unanswered by microbicide trial

Merck signs non-exclusive license agreement with LabCorp for commercialization of genetic test

Global Fund director calls on emerging countries to invest more in programs to reduce HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria at AIDS 2010

Albert Einstein College of Medicine receives research grant to help people with MDR-TB

AHF denies BMS sales reprepresentatives access to healthcare centers

Tibotec submits NDA for TMC278 anti-HIV compound to FDA

Toolkits to facilitate implementation of new WHO guidelines for reducing HIV infections issued

AIDS 2010: Obama, Clinton vow U.S. support to global fight against HIV/AIDS

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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