Tag Archives: pharma

The FDA has signaled that it is about to approve the usage of Truvada as a daily preventive for HIV infection among high-risk populations. The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Gilead Sciences’ Truvada appears to be safe and effective for HIV prevention. It concluded that taking the pill daily could spare patients “infection with a serious and life-threatening …

Details.

If that first name seems familiar to you, it’s because he used to be the chairman of the House committee that oversees the drug industry. Whom he now lobbies for to the tune of many millions annually. One of his recent successes was continuing the ban on importing prescription drugs from Canada. More on him and a longer list at …

Our favorite socialist has issued a typically blistering call for lower HIV drug costs. On the official site of Sen. Bernie Sanders, he discusses his innovative HIV drug bill. (My bolding.) By allowing patients to purchase generic versions of HIV/AIDS medicines, the bill would lower prices dramatically. In place of revenues from high prices for prescription medicine, the innovator of …

Pfizer’s patent on their “blockbuster” heart drug Lipitor, which has raked in billions, ended yesterday. And already a cheaper generic has been cleared for sale. That news may be a literal lifesaver for people whose insurance did not cover Lipitor. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. has won approval to sell generic copies of the $10.7 billion cholesterol pill Lipitor in the U.S., …

Today AIDS activists will “occupy” the Foster City, California offices of drug giant Gilead in protest of the high cost of HIV medications. Press release: In the spirit of the “Occupy” movement, protestors hope to call attention to the severe AIDS drug crisis facing the nation’s ADAPs—a network of federal and state funded programs that provide life-saving HIV treatments to …

Yesterday the FDA approved the second all-in-one daily combination pill for the treatment of HIV infection. The first such medication, Atripla, has been on the market for several years. Complera, a complete single-tablet regimen containing Janssen Therapeutics’ Edurant (rilpivirine) and Gilead Sciences’ Viread (tenofovir) and Emtriva (emtricitabine), was approved August 10 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according …

Hit this link for a huge interactive version of the above image. Definitely worth a few minutes of your day.

JMG reader Mark King sends us his recap of the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program (ADAP) conference, boiling the entire event down into a few minutes.

“I find it disconcerting that so many HIV treatment activists today, many of whom are living with HIV themselves, are wildly supportive of a prevention modality that has no benefit to people living with HIV other than arguably allowing HIV-positive people to have unprotected sex with HIV-negative people with a reduced risk of transmitting HIV, a risk that would be …

The FDA has approved the first in a new class of drugs that may increase the cure rate for Hepatitis C. The new drug, Victrelis from Merck, effectively cured more than 60 percent of patients in clinical trials when used along with existing drugs. That compared with 20 to 40 percent of patients cured by the existing drugs alone. “This …

As the world approaches the 30th anniversary of the first noted cases of AIDS, famed activist Larry Kramer publishes a typically blistering editorial for CNN International in which he shouts that AIDS is a plague that was allowed to happen. And still is. An excerpt: Governments and bureaucrats and presidents and politicians and the people who run this world lie …

The New York Times reports that 42 members of the House read health care reform statements into the official record that were ghostwritten by lobbyists from pharmaceutical giant Genentech. E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans. The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law …

Embiggen the chart to follow the money. (Via – Slog)

So far, the rats are happy. Via the Telegraph (UK): Scientists in the United States have successfully tested the new technique – which involves tiny objects called nanoparticles – on rats and believe it could also be used to help humans. Under the therapy, nanoparticles that release the anti-erectile chemical nitric oxide are rubbed on the problem area, and absorbed …

It’s a complicated turn of events for Gilead, the maker of HIV drug Viread. The 9th Circuit Court has reinstated a securities class action suit against the drug maker which claims that Gilead had misled investors about the demand for Viread. The suit charges that Gilead fostered demand for Viread by using improper marketing such as “aggressively promoting off-label uses.” …

Pharmaceutical giant Roche has announced that they are suspending further research into HIV drugs because none of the drugs they are working on appear to improve on drugs already on the market. “Research scientists currently working in HIV will be reassigned to other activities,” Linda Dyson, a spokeswoman in Roche’s U.S. office in New Jersey, said in an e-mail. Dyson …

This sounds like it was Mirapex. (Paris) A French civil servant who claims he was turned gay by his Parkinson’s medication has won a lawsuit against against a distributor of drugs containing dopamine. Didier Jambart is seeking about a half-million dollars in compensation. His lawsuit claimed that he was not told the medication could lead to compulsive behavior. He claimed …

More disappointing news about Merck’s recently halted HIV vaccine study. The vaccine is made from a common cold virus with three synthetic HIV genes tucked inside. It’s designed to stimulate the immune system to kill any HIV-infected cells encountered in the future. However, the researchers found that volunteers with pre-existing immunity to this particular cold virus were much more likely …