Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. Reston Town Center, 1750 Presidents Street, Suite 250, Reston, VA 22090 - Thursday, 17 April 1997.
The AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) working group estimated that the cost for the next fiscal year would be more than $500 million for the states and Washington.
To cover that, states will have to contribute an extra $46 million and the federal government will have to budget an extra $132 million beyond the current $167 million level.
The group estimated that the $167 million in this year's budget would be exhausted halfway through the year, and that another $69 million would have to be allocated to get through the year.
About 1,000 new patients each month are seeking a cocktail of antiviral drugs which has transformed the prospects for prolonging the lives of people infected with HIV. The drugs are not a cure, but can keep the virus suppressed.
The working group is an advocacy system for the drug assistance programs in the states which helps pay for drugs for people who lack private health insurance or do not qualify for Medicaid. But the ADAP programs do not cover all patients in need.
The working group in a few weeks will release an updated report on access to drugs in various states.
Preliminary data show that four states still do not offer any of the protease inhibitors, the breakthrough drugs, to AIDS patients. Several states offer only one or two of the four protease drugs on the market, so if a patient cannot tolerate one brand or formula, they do not have the option of trying alternatives.
AIDS activist Mary Fisher, best known for her 1992 speech to the Republican convention, told a Congressional briefing on the AIDS budget that Americans should be ashamed that some people do not have access to these drugs.
"We should be ashamed of ourselves," she said. "Like evangelists caught in cheap motels with bad magazines, we are what we ought not to be."
Copyright (c) 1997/Reuters NewMedia, Inc. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, Reuters NewMedia Inc., Reston Town Center, 1750 Presidents Street, Suite 250, Reston, VA 22090.
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