Washington Blade - July 14, 2006

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) - Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and biotech drug maker Gilead Sciences Inc. said July 12 the Food & Drug Administration approved a long-awaited combination HIV treatment made by the companies through a joint venture. The FDA approved Atripla, a fixed dose combination of Bristol-Myers' Sustiva HIV drug, along with Viread and Emtriva, HIV treatments made by Gilead. The product is the first once-a-day single tablet HIV regimen approved for U.S. sale. Sustiva, Viread and Emtriva all work by blocking reverse transcriptase, an enzyme necessary for HIV to make copies of itself. The drugs in the in Atripla already constitute the most widely prescribed regimen in the United State and one of the most effective. The companies will launch Atripla by July 19. The drug will cost more than $1,150 a month in the U.S., Gilead spokesman James Loduca said, Bloomberg News reported.

UCLA researchers turn stem cells into T-cells

LOS ANGELES - Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles believe they have found a way to convince human embryonic stem cells into becoming the T-cell that a body uses to fight disease, the Orange County Register reported July 4. "This could be a very important weapon in the first against AIDS," biologist Zoran Galic said in a statement, the Register reported. Galic headed up the research team that genetically tweaked the stem cells until they evolved into mature T-cells - a form of white blood cells indispensable to human life. The advance is the first time scientists have manipulated human embryonic stem cells this way. "These results indicate that it is possible to decipher the signals that control the development of embryonic stem cells into mature T-cells," said Jerome Zack, the study's co-author. "That way we can eventually repopulate the immune system with patients needing T-cells."

'Elite controllers' may hold cure to HIV

SAN FRANCISCO -Scientists are studying why less than 1 percent of HIV-positive people show little or no sign of the disease and whether they may hold the key to a cure. The Los Angeles Times reported July 6 that men like Matt Traywick, who was "very sexually active" in the 1970s and diagnosed with HIV 21 years ago, has been healthy ever since. He has never taken anti-HIV medications. AIDS researchers consider Traywick an "elite controller" - individuals who are extremely rare and account for an estimated one-third of 1 percent of known HIV-positive pole and numbering perhaps 2,000, the Times reported. They and so-called viremic controllers, healthy infected people whose immune systems keep the virus at a very low, although detectable, levels in the blood without drugs, are of keen interest to AIDS researchers. "I would say we still don't have the faintest idea why these people are doing as well as they are," said Harvard medical professor Bruce Walker. "Achieving the state that these guys have reached in their bodies - if we could do that through some intervention, we could solve the AIDS epidemic," he told the newspaper.

Day laborers targeted for sex at risk for HIV

VAN NUYS, Calif. û Day laborers in this southern California city, often of questionable legal status, are often discovering their employers want more than lawn care, pool cleaning and landscaping, the Los Angeles Daily News reported July 2. These would-be employers offer positions to day laborers under the auspices of legitimate work only to find out the "employer" is really looking for sex. For the past three years, outreach workers have handed out safe-sex booklets at several Los Angeles-area day laborer locations listed on a website used by gay men in search of sex. Dr. Frank Galvan, of the Charles R. Drew University School of Medicine in Los Angeles, conducted a survey of 450 day laborers at various sites listed on the website, and found 38 percent said they had been solicited for sex while seeking work. Ten percent of those said they accepted the offer, and a majority of those said they did not use condoms. Of those who accepted the offer for sex, 86 percent denied being gay. The same 86 percent said they agreed to have sex for money because they hadn't worked that day and need the cash. Of the 450 day laborers surveyed, only one tested positive for HIV.

060714
WB060708

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2006. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2006. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .