Washington Blade - December 26, 2003

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) - Abbott Laboratories Inc. is hiking the U.S. price of an important AIDS drug more than fourfold, citing its sharp increase in treatment value and the costs of improving its formulation. The company informed doctors, AIDS groups and pharmacies of the change in price in Norvir earlier this month, company spokesperson Melissa Brotz said. The wholesale price for a month's treatment of the protease inhibitor is being raised to $265 from $54, she said. The dramatic price hike was reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said the increase has created a furor among AIDS groups and other critics of the move. Norvir is not a top seller for Abbott but is used extensively in small doses to boost the potency of some AIDS combination-drug therapies. Critics of the price hike cited by the Journal said Abbott's intention is to push patients away from using Norvir in drug cocktails and switch to its newer AIDS treatment, Kaletra - something Abbott denies.

Activists: New Medicare law a setback for AIDS patients

NEW YORK - New legislation to revamp the nation's Medicare program may be bad news for tens of thousands of AIDS patients, the InterPress News Service Agency reported. Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS, said this week that millions of senior citizens on Medicare will become victims of a provision to prevent duplicate prescription drug coverage by Medicaid and Medicare. Those patients are "dual eligibles," the news agency reported. According to Anderson, the Medicare changes endanger AIDS patients by limiting approved drugs for use. "HIV is a disease which requires careful prescribing, so limiting which medicines can be provided to people living with AIDS can threaten our health and lives," Anderson said. "Health care providers must have access to all antiretroviral medications approved by the Food & Drug Administration to provide U.S. Public Health Service standard of care."

Workers with HIV/AIDS treated as pariahs in Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnamese with HIV/AIDS are often ostracized by their colleagues and employers in the workplace, including being fired or refused jobs, the International Labor Organization said. "Stigma and discrimination is in fact a reality at workplaces," ILO country director Rose Marie Greve said during a workshop on the topic. "More importantly, and very sadly, it is often based on misinformation." Greve said Vietnam has no anti-discrimination law dealing with HIV/AIDS in the workplace, leading to a loss of skilled workers. An ILO study conducted earlier this year found that 88 percent of factory workers surveyed associated HIV/AIDS with so-called "social evils," such as being gay, prostitution and intravenous drug use. But Jordan Ryan, country representative of the United Nations Development Program, said that may have been the case 10 years ago, but the disease is now rapidly spreading within the general population.

Study says more younger women inclined to report they are gay

NEW YORK - An Australian study has found that, compared to older women, young women are much more likely to say they are lesbian or bisexual, Reuters reported. The same trend is not seen among men, according to Reuters. The findings match those in studies from the United States and Great Britain, the agency reported. According to the new study, women in their 20s are far more likely to say they are lesbian or bisexual than women in their 40s or 60s, Reuters reported. The research surveyed more than 7,400 adults in one Australian city. The study also found that 4.5 percent of women ages 20 to 24 reported that they are lesbians, while 2.7 percent of women ages 40 to 44 and less than 1 percent of women in their early 60s reported that they are gay. The study, detailed in the current issue of the journal Gerontology, found that older men also are less likely than younger men to say they are gay or bisexual, but the statistical difference is slight, Reuters reported.

State panel rejects claim by transsexual inmate

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A legislative panel rejected a damage claim last week filed by an inmate who wants to undergo sex-change surgery but has been denied hormone therapy in prison. Christopher I. Sorrels, 29, described herself as a transsexual in the rejected $500,000 claim. She said she has been dressing as a woman since she was 13 and has undergone hormone therapy for 10 years to prepare herself for surgery. Sorrels argued that the Department of Corrections has shown "deliberate indifference" to her "serious medical needs." She said she has suffered pain and depression because she cannot continue her therapy. But the state said Sorrels fails to qualify for hormone therapy under guidelines set by Prison Health Services, a Tennessee company that provides medical services for inmates under a contract with the Department of Corrections. "It's not the state's responsibility or a medical necessity to fund that elective surgery,'' said Rep. Bonnie Huy, chair of the legislature's Special Committee on Claims Against the State.

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