GSK and Pfizer announce joint company
Three VA patients test positive for HIV as a result of contaminated equipment
BMS launches co-pay assistance program
Prisons creating HIV time-bomb
GSK and Pfizer announce joint company
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer recently announced that they will combine their HIV operations into one new company, which will account for nearly 20 percent of current HIV drug sales.
This deal, the first of its kind, is likely the result of lack of growth in the HIV drug arms of the two companies. The ever-evolving nature of the epidemic creates fierce competition for pharmaceutical companies to develop newer compounds that are more tolerable and easier to take, as well as to counter issues associated with resistance.
Relatively low returns on spending for research and development of these drugs, however, are forcing more and more pharmaceutical companies to explore ways to minimize their risks. Consequently, collaborative efforts between HIV drug-makers are becoming increasingly common, as in the case of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences working together to produce the multi-drug combo pill Atripla, currently leading the sale of HIV drugs.
Though this type of shared business practice can be rationalized with respect to bottom lines for pharma companies, advocates are concerned that drug companies may be moving away from HIV.
“I hope we can get to a new generation of better and more tolerable drugs before progress in this field halts,” said Bob Huff, editorial director and ARV project director of the New York–based Treatment Action Group. (For more information, go to www.aidsmeds.com.)
GSK chief executive officer Andrew Witty contends that “one of the goals will be to develop new fixed dose combination therapies, using existing and novel medicines.”
Witty cited benefits to both companies. GSK will now have access to the new medicines that Pfizer has in clinical development while Pfizer will gain GSK’s strong HIV marketing and distribution expertise.
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Three VA patients test positive for HIV as a result of contaminated equipment
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently released a statement confirming that three patients exposed to contaminated endoscopic equipment at VA medical facilities have tested positive for HIV.
According to the statement, more than 10,000 patients seen at facilities in Murfreesboro, TN; Augusta, GA; and Miami, FL were potentially exposed and are being contacted for screening. Each of the three recently diagnosed patients was seen at one of these three facilities.
In addition, the VA also revealed that there have been six positive hepatitis B virus tests and 19 positive hepatitis C virus tests at three of its locations.
The VA stresses that it is not possible to prove that patients were exposed to these viruses at any of its facilities. The agency is also unsure whether patients at any of its other 150 locations may have been exposed, as a result of treatment with the same kind of equipment.
A mistake in cleaning the equipment was uncovered during a nationwide safety campaign. The mistake has been corrected, according to an agency spokeswoman, but the problem dates back more than five years at the Murfreesboro and Miami hospitals.
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BMS launches co-pay assistance program
Joining a growing list of pharmaceutical companies already offering some sort of co-pay program, Bristol-Myers Squibb becomes the latest to allow HIV patients currently taking Reyataz (atazanavir) and Sustiva (efavirenz) to save in out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.
Citing a weak economy and a desire to help people afford their medications, the pharmaceutical company will allow patients to save some $200 of co-pay costs monthly, for up to a year.
Patients will be responsible for the first $50 plus any amount over $250 at the pharmacy.
The financial assistance program, set to launch by the end of April, is especially tailored for those who have private insurance and who are paying high co-pays for their HIV medications. Co-pay cards will be available through your health care provider. For more information on other drug co-pay programs click here.
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Prisons creating HIV time-bomb
Relating HIV to a ‘health time-bomb,’ UN officials say a toxic mixture of poverty, drug use and overcrowded prisons have served to create a public health nightmare.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which monitors and sets guidelines for prisons throughout the world, say some 30 million inmates across the globe are potentially living in substandard conditions where populations have not kept pace with space.
Inmates living with HIV and preparing to return to the community are in no better shape, say officials.
Overcrowding is a dilemma in places like Africa and Central America, where prisons can house up to 10 times the number of inmates for which they were originally built.
The United States prison population numbers over 2 million, the highest incarcerated population in the world, according to the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
“We are seeing a disaster around the world,” said Antonio Maria Costa, a UNODC official.
And a slumping economy worldwide has only added to the frustration of the UN, said Costa, as money shrivels up for the construction of prisons.
“Money for prisons is limited worldwide…priority is given to children, to education, to health, to the elderly,” he said.
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