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How many times have you started to have a conversation with someone about Hepatitis C only to have it blow up in your face? Have you ever heard someone say something about Hep C that didn't seem quite right to you? You were probably right something was amiss. A discussion about Hepatitis C can...
As per Wikipedia, the definition of a stigma is as follows: "Stigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark"." Wikipedia goes on to call stigma "A badge of shame, a physical mark of infamy or disgrace." Damn that w...
Recently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) issued a statement that all Baby Boomers should be tested for Hepatitis C. The question often comes up as to why this particular segment of people is so vulnerable. What does being born between 1945 and 1965 have to do with Hepatitis C? What was di...
Buyer Beware! There are several snake oil salesmen out there who are claiming to have cured their own Hepatitis C with herbs, supplements and parking lot gravel. Okay, maybe not the parking lot gravel but it might as well be. What you need to remember is that there are two different types of...
Most every adult woman (and an occasional man) has enjoyed a manicure and a pedicure at a nail salon or spa. That 30 minute pedicure can be so relaxing but are you aware of the danger lurking in that nail salon? Although few individuals recognize the medical risks associated with this common pr...
AIDS Healthcare Foundation will host a press teleconference tomorrow, Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 10:00 am Pacific Time (PT) to announce its plan to file a ballot measure in the City of San Francisco seeking to allow voters to weigh in on directing San Francisco city officials to, “…employ all opportunities that the municipal government possesses to bring down the price of prescription drugs.” The proposed ballot measure comes on heels of the FDA approval yesterday of the Bay Area’s Gilead Sciences’ four-in-one AIDS treatment combination Stribild—which Gilead immediately priced at $28,500 per patient, per year, Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC)—a whopping 37% more than Gilead’s best-selling three-in-one AIDS treatment, Atripla—and also more than most U.S. AIDS patients earn in any given year.
WHAT:
Press Teleconference:
WHEN:
WEDNESDAY, August 29th 2012—10:00 AM Pacific
HOW:
Teleconference Dial in: +1.877.411.9748 participant code #7134323
WHO:
Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President
Dr. Lisha Wilson, Medical Director, San Francisco Healthcare Centers, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Dale R. Gluth, Associate Regional Director, Bay Area, AIDS Healthcare Foundation & Ballot Proponent
Jason King, Advocacy and Legislative Affairs Manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Senior Director, Public Health Division, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
CONTACT:
Ged Kenslea, AHF Communications Director (323) 791-5526 cell (323) 308-1833 office
“This is as blatant an example of predatory pricing as there is, and Gilead Sciences and CEO John Martin should be ashamed,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “$28,500 per patient, per year for this drug illustrates how unsustainable drug pricing has become—in fact, $28,500 is more than most U.S. AIDS patients earn in a year. This price will severely limit access to lifesaving AIDS medications by gouging government aid programs like the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. We previously urged Gilead to price the new combination no higher than that of Atripla. In response to Gilead’s pricing action, we have decided to move forward with a ballot measure in the City of San Francisco that would require city officials to work to reign in such runaway drug costs.”
AHF’s City of San Francisco ballot initiative requires the collection of approximately 10,000 valid signatures of registered San Francisco voters. Collection of signatures will begin later in the fall (it is too late to qualify for the November 2012 ballot) and extend through early winter, and the measure should appear on the November 5, 2013 San Francisco election ballot.
AHF’s Drug Pricing Ballot Language
Following is the language of AHF’s proposed ‘Stop Runaway Drug Pricing’ San Francisco ballot measure:
“The people of San Francisco wishing to ensure maximum access to life-saving medications to all of the citizens of the city, state and nation resolve to employ all opportunities that the municipal government possesses to bring down the price of prescription drugs. Our city has a very large population of people who are HIV infected and drug prices have a significant impact on our finances.
This initiative requires that San Francisco enter into direct negotiation with drug manufacturers to pay less for essential medications that it purchases. In addition, the San Francisco delegations to the California Legislature and the US Congress are asked to carry legislation to reduce current drug prices paid by all levels of government by at least one third.
The largest HIV drug maker Gilead Sciences, which is located in the Bay Area has made record profits and its CEO earns $53 million, while thousands of HIV patients have languished on waiting lists for drugs across the United States and the State of California and its cities struggle to pay their bills. As the nation embarks on healthcare reform, which will bring tens of millions of new paying customers to the pharmaceutical industry, this industry must act in a responsible fashion - San Francisco can lead the way.”
California State Legislators Say Drug Prices, ‘Unsustainable,’ Urge Action on Pricing by State DPH
Two weeks ago, a group of 20 California legislators led by California Assemblymember Betsy Butler (D, 53rd Assembly District) cosigned a letter to Dr. Ron Chapman, Director of California’s Department of Public Health in which the legislators expressed concern about the rising costs of drugs to treat people with HIV/AIDS served by California’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and encouraged Chapman’s department to, “…employ all the levers of influence and authority that the government possesses, independently and in partnership with other states, to reduce the price of prescription drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS and its co-morbidities.”
Butler’s cosigners include: Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D, 13th District); Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D, 8th District); Assemblymember Das Williams (D, 35th District); Senator Ted Lieu (D, Torrance); Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D, 40th District); Assemblymember Toni Atkins (D, 76th District); Assemblymember Jim Beall (D, 24th District); Assemblymember Marty Block (D, 78th District); Senator Elaine Alquist (D, Santa Clara); Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal (D, 54th District); Senator Kevin de Leon (D, Los Angeles); Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D, 6th District); Assemblymember Gil Cedillo (D, 45th District); Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D, 41st District); Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (D, 15th District); Assemblymember Wes Chesbro (D, 1st District); Assemblymember Wilmer Amina Carter (D, 62nd District); Senator Curren Price (D, Los Angeles) and Assemblymember Anthony Portantino (D, 44th District).
In the legislators’ letter to Dr. Chapman, dated and sent August 16, 2012, they noted:
“Added to the current pressures, are a number of new very expensive drugs in the pipeline for FDA approval as early as this month, The anticipated cost of each of these new drugs creates a tension between the need to make all HIV/AIDS drugs available to our citizens and the need to ensure that ADAP remains financially viable as the payor of last resort for Californians who need these drugs to stay alive and productive.”
“Because of its innovation in responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its substantial market share, the State of California has the stature to be a leader in fostering drug prices that are fiscally responsible, fair to the drug companies and sustain access for persons, with HIV/AIDS. DPH has statutory and other tools already available to it that can be used to improve California's negotiating position.”
“Gilead’s excessive pricing of it AIDS drugs has already generated record profits for the company, and $53 million in annual pay for its CEO, John Martin, making him the tenth highest paid executive in the nation,” added AHF’s Weinstein. “Sadly, this has come at the expense of state ADAP and Medicaid programs, the largest purchasers of Gilead’s products, and the people living with HIV/AIDS that rely on these programs but cannot access them due to funding constraints. A state as vast and powerful as California—and a City like San Francisco—can and should use its clout to stand up to runaway pricing drug companies like Gilead feel they can get away with.”
Please sign the ATC Salvage Therapy Petition Join us in asking Congressman Alcee Hastings and Congresswomen Maxine Waters to send a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, asking for the federal facilitation of apricitabine (ATC). ATC is a phase III nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that has been shown to be safe and effective in treating people with HIV. It works against viruses that are resistant to several other nukes and could ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School announced today at CROI2013 the discovery of the first infant functionally cured of HIV. The baby, a female now two and a half years old, received 3 HIV medications when brought to the hospital at 30 hours old. Viral load tests were performed during the first few weeks that showed a rapidly decreasing viral load which reached ...
At the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington D.C., the CDC reported that only 1 out of 4 HIV patients in the U.S. have HIV under control, which is defined as complete viral suppression. Warning bells should be ringing in the scientific and HIV advocacy communities. While much progress has been made in the last three decades in the treatment of HIV, tens of thousands of people living with HIV (PLWH) are currently struggling to construct viable treat...
Paige Rawl is 17 and HIV positive, but while her life has been shaped by HIV it isn't ruled by it. When Paige Rawl starts her senior year at Indianapolis’s Herron High School next month, she'll be cheer captain and a member of the student government and prom committee. This summer, the 17-year-old held down a part-time job at Hollister, hawking the popular Southern California-inspired clothing brand. The all-American girl — who happens to be HIV positive. Paige was in...
The HIV community has been abuzz with the August FDA approval of what had been termed “the Quad”, the second one-pill-once-a-day combination antiretroviral drug. Marketed by Gilead under the name Stribild, the drug contains two NRTIs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), an integrase inhibitor (elvitegravir) and an integrase booster (cobicistat) and is approved for use in treatment naïve patients with either drug resistant or wild type virus. In comparison to Atripla, the first...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for SUSTIVA® (efavirenz), including dosing recommendations for...
California and other states would be pressured to amend or repeal criminal laws that single out HIV-positive people under a bipartisan bill co-authored and introduced this week by Rep. Barbara...
Mission Statement
At HIV Haven we wish to provide our readers with vital cutting edge information to help expand HIV knowledge and promote activism, particularly that which works towards an end to the HIV pandemic. It is our desire to bring to you the scientific, medical and social advances that given the appropriate attention and support, could change the course of the HIV pandemic, lessen the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, better the quality and quantity of life for people living with HIV and even yield an eventual end to the HIV pandemic. We also provide the basics of HIV transmission and treatment.
We will focus on issues such as innovative drug development, strategic activist campaigns, HIV relationships and novel HIV and HIV cure research. We also will bring you advances in Hepatitis C (HCV), a common HIV co-infection. Whether you are living with HIV/AIDS, HIV and HCV, love someone who is, are an activist, advocate, researcher, physician or just an interested party, we hope here at HIV Haven we can help you find what you are looking for.
HIV Haven is kindly hosted by 
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