Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, August 25, 1989
Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, conducted a study released last week that showed that the drug AZT delays the start of AIDS in people infected with the HIV virus but who have no AIDS symptoms.
The study opened the door for 650,000 Americans who are infected but outwardly healthy to begin treatment with AZT, which costs $8,000 per person a year. "From a scientific standpoint, whether you have symptoms or not, you should be taking the drug," Fauci said at a conference on lesbian and gay health care in San Francisco. "We really need to have pressure on the drug company about getting the price down," he said. Burroughs Wellcome, the drug's manufacturer, maintains that the high cost resulted from AZT's research and development. The study showed that AZT delays the start of the disease in people infected by the virus who have no symptoms but whose count of T4 cells has fallen below 500 per cubic centimeter. In his keynote address, Fauci also noted a growing federal government backlash against money for AIDS research. In the past year, the AIDS research budget for Fauci's agency has risen 28.5 percent to $400 million while research financing for all other diseases has increased only 3.2 percent to $443 million.
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