Tag Archives: Truvada

Via press release from the ever-combative AHF: Advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) stepped up efforts to ensure that Gilead Sciences, Inc. be held accountable for promoting off-label use of Truvada for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection. AHF also wants Gilead to be compelled to promote and market use of its AIDS treatment in accordance with …

The use of the medication Truvada as an HIV preventive, a strategy known as PrEP, has not yet been approved by Britain’s National Health Service, a step the FDA took in 2012. Last night the BBC hosted a discussion on the issue in which a representative from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation expressed his reservations. As you probably know, …

Last night a group of noted AIDS activists including Peter Staley and Larry Kramer met in the very apartment where the Gay Men’s Health Crisis was formed 33 years ago to denounce the “abusive pricing” and “profiteering” which continues to put cost of PrEP beyond the means of much of the world. The group has issued a statement: We – …

For World AIDS Day, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta today reported on PrEP, which is the daily usage of Truvada as an HIV preventive. CNN’s piece characterized PrEP as “controversial” – when in fact it has been endorsed by the CDC and virtually all HIV/AIDS activists and organizations. So you can guess where this “controversy” is REALLY coming from. Watch below.

The Los Angeles Times reports: A California initiative that would require actors in adult films to wear condoms in sex scenes has qualified for the November 2016 ballot, officials said Wednesday. The measure was proposed by Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who said it is needed to provide statewide rules modeled on those adopted by …

Several days ago a trade organization for the porn industry sent out an alert about the ever-combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which is most famous for its deep-pocketed advertising campaigns against the use of Truvada as an HIV preventive. From the Free Speech Coalition: Earlier this week, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) served several testing centers with subpoenas, asking them to …

Three years ago today the FDA approved Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Since then PrEP has remained controversial. Powerful naysayers like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation run anti-PrEP ads in a major publications while other HIV/AIDS groups and health departments in major US cities vigorously promote PrEP for at-risk populations. In another PrEP promotion, the hook-up app Scruff is today …

VICE has launched a three-part series titled The Truvada Revolution.  A drug called Truvada is the first the FDA-approved means of preventing HIV infection. If an HIV-negative person takes the pill every day, they’re nearly 99 percent protected from contracting the virus. Controversy continues to surround the broad uptake of Truvada, but the landscape of safer sex and HIV-prevention changes …

Poz.com reports: Daily Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV takes five to seven days to reach top estimated effectiveness among men who have sex with men (MSM). High levels of protection are maintained for perhaps a week after the last dose. According to levels of drug detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and comparisons of those results to …

Poz.com reports: Assurant Health, a national company specializing in health insurance coverage for individuals and small businesses, will no longer cover the med Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent contracting HIV. Several Assurant customers who had been taking Truvada (comprising the antiretrovirals tenofovir and emtricitabine) as PrEP were recently notified that the insurer would end coverage of the med …

Featuring Dan Savage, Cleve Jones, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation head Michael Weinstein. (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

Via the Associated Press: For the first time, a study shows that a drug used to treat HIV infection also can help prevent it when taken before and after risky sex by gay men. The results offer hope of a more appealing way to help prevent the disease beyond taking daily pills and using condoms, although those methods are still …

Gay Men’s Health Crisis will host a “PrEP Rally” on February 2nd to discuss the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. From their Facebook event page: “Heard about PrEP & Truvada? Not sure if it’s right for you? Not sure how to get it with or without insurance? Let’s clear up some rumors and get the facts! Join …

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation continues its campaign against PrEP and Truvada today with the above open letter to the CDC which is being published in major newspapers. Writing for the New York Times, Josh Barro notes that the AHF is fighting this battle alone: “There’s no large controversy; there is one loud voice,” said Charles King, the president of the …

Gus Caims reports at AIDS Map: In an extraordinary development, a second European scientific trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has had its randomised phase closed early due to high effectiveness, just two weeks after the UK PROUD trial did exactly the same thing. The investigators of the IPERGAY trial, which has six sites in France and one in Canada, announced …

Via Mission Local: In a 10 to 1 vote, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation to allocate $301,600 from the city’s general fund toward educating San Francisco residents about the HIV-prevention pill Truvada. Now “health navigators,” who will be commissioned by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, will help patients access the drug — whether they have …

Via the Associated Press: The largest U.S. gay-rights organization Saturday endorsed efforts to promote the use of a once-a-day pill to prevent HIV infection and called on insurers to provide more generous coverage of the drug. Some doctors have been reluctant to prescribe the drug, Truvada, on the premise that it might encourage high-risk, unprotected sexual behavior. However, its preventive …

After reports that relatively few healthcare providers are prescribing Truvada as a daily HIV preventive, the CDC has launched a free hotline to answer their questions. PrEPline is aimed toward physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants providing primary care to uninfected patients with high risk. The phone service is staffed by experienced clinicians and offers written and online checklists, guidelines …

The New York City Department of Health has launched a PrEP campaign on Grindr, Scruff, and social media sites. And of course, the ever combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation is furious. A stigma persists that Truvada is a “party pill” — an attitude shared by some doctors who scold patients about their sexual practices and won’t prescribe it, said Anthony Hayes, …

“Here are your options: the blue pill or the red pill. Take the one-pill-a-day Truvada and never get HIV; take the often one-pill anti-retroviral pill, and you will never give someone HIV. To make doubly sure, you can always use a condom. Except almost every man who ever had sex hates condoms – and, unlike a pill you take every …