Tag Archives: pharma

Raw Story reports: Appearing on Bloomberg TV, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that recently hiked the price of a drug used for critically ill infants and AIDS patients by 5,500 percent, defended the price increase by promising better things to come for future patients. Martin Shkreli, 32, the founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, recently purchased the rights …

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 …

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, …

Acting out of “desperation,” a doctor in Liberia is reporting success in treating ebola with the HIV medication marketed as Epivir. Dr. Gobee Logan has given the drug, lamivudine, to 15 Ebola patients, and all but two survived. That’s a 7% mortality rate. Across West Africa, the virus has killed 70% of its victims. Outside Logan’s Ebola center in Tubmanburg, …

According to a study issued this week, long-term use of anti-anxiety and insomnia drugs may dramatically increase the odds of developing Alzheimer’s. Regular use of benzodiazepines — which include medications such as Valium (diazepam), Ativan (lorazepam), Xanax (alprazolam) and Klonopin (clonazepam) — is associated with as much as a 51 percent increased risk for Alzheimer’s among people who use the …

The combative and controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation is launching a print ad campaign against the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive. Via press release: AHF’s ‘PrEP Facts’ ad campaign educating the public about adherence issues and PrEP initially started running this week in a few newspapers, magazines and online outlets in California and will continue and expand to …

Whoa.

Australian authorities have banned the sale of an energy drink that contains the active ingredient in Levitra. The Therapeutic Goods Administration is warning of the ‘stiff’ side effects of drinking MosKa, after it was found to include ingredients used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. While some might not consider this an undesirable side effect, a safety advisory released yesterday …

The Associated Press has published a lengthy examination of the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive, which is opposed by some activists and the often combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation. It’s the Truvada conundrum: A drug hailed as a lifesaver for many people infected by HIV is at the heart of a rancorous debate among gay men, AIDS activists …

The New York state Department of Health has officially endorsed daily use of the Gilead medication Truvada for the prevention of HIV infection. After months of anticipation, the Health Department’s AIDS Institute released thorough clinical guidelines for pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, which is a daily dose of HIV medication that people who are HIV-negative but at-risk of contracting …

Drug giant Abbott raised the price on its HIV med Norvir by 400% in 2007, just before SmithKline launched its own combination drug that includes Norvir. Therefore, lawsuit. But the case may now hinge on whether it was legal for Abbott to challenge one of the jurors because he is gay. “It’s a big deal,” said Vik Amar, University of …

In what is being called a revolutionary development in the treatment of HIV, the South African government will begin offering a daily three-in-one anti-retroviral pill that will cost only $10 per month. In South Africa, where 5.6 million people live with HIV/AIDS, treatment options were bleak at best — until now. The country has announced a new regimen that combines …

Courtesy of the film’s producers, this week’s Swag Tuesday prize is the DVD of the Oscar-nominated AIDS documentary, How To Survive A Plague, which goes on sale nationwide on February 26th. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE is the story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful …

Groundbreaking AIDS activist Spencer Cox, who was profiled in the documentary How To Stop A Plague, has died of HIV-related complications at the age of 44. Cox is widely credited with helping create the drug testing protocols that rushed life-saving medications to a desperate community.  ACT UP sends us his obituary: From 1994 to 1999, he was Director of the …

New Jersey-based Merck, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has suspended its funding of the Boy Scouts. Via GLAAD, here is their statement: The BSA’s policy of exclusion based on sexual orientation directly conflicts with the Merck Foundation’s giving guidelines. The Foundation re-evaluated funding for the BSA when the organization restated its policy that excludes members on the basis …

The government of Indonesia has told local pharmaceutical companies that they may ignore international patents on several HIV medications. Reuters reports: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono quietly issued a decree last month authorizing government use of patents for seven HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B medicines held by the likes of Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott and Gilead. The international trade …

Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim, which sells Aptivus and Viramune, two of the world’s most widely-prescribed HIV medications, has announced that they are closing their virology research division. “To ensure our sustained growth, competitiveness and independence, Boehringer Ingelheim has been focusing on areas of high medical need in which we have convincing research targets as well as outstanding capabilities,” said Dr. Michel …

The FDA has approved Gilead’s latest combination once-a-day HIV pill which has been known as “the Quad.” Via FDA press release: Stribild contains two previously approved HIV drugs plus two new drugs, elvitegravir and cobicistat. Elvitegravir is an HIV integrase strand transfer inhibitor, a drug that interferes with one of the enzymes that HIV needs to multiply. Cobicistat, a pharmacokinetic …

Via press release from the CDC: According to the revised guidelines, published today in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the most effective treatment for gonorrhea is a combination therapy: the injectable antibiotic ceftriaxone along with one of two other oral antibiotics, either azithromycin or doxycycline. In the past, gonorrhea has developed resistance to every antibiotic recommended for treatment, leaving …