Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
T-20 Fuzeon Update
Information Bulletin #17 - February 2003
The experimental drug T-20, known as Fuzeon, is about to be made available to 15,000 people. Actually, it's probably going to be approved by The FDA any day, and the company only has enough vials of the drug for 15,000 people worldwide for the year. In clinical trials, Fuzeon has performed well in people with few other treatment options. Participants in trials of the drug who had at least two other drugs that still had some effect against their HIV did better than those who had fewer active anti-HIV drugs. Fuzeon must be taken with other HIV drugs. The drug was injected twice a day. The drug was fairly well tolerated, although injection site reactions caused problems for quite a few people. The current Expanded Access Program for the drug requires doctors to undergo training on how the drug works, and how to manage possible side effects such as injection site reactions. Roche is currently devising a plan to distribute the drug so that people who really need it will be able to access it. The price of the drug is expected to be high, so it is not known at this point if ADAPs will cover the drug, or if Medicaid will cover the drug. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, has recently offered new Medicaid guidelines that may drastically affect what is covered. Activists have been meeting with Roche to try to secure some sort of equitable distribution plan, and to encourage a reasonable price for the drug. It's not clear at this point how many people are interested in using the drug, and how successful activists will be in influencing pricing and access.
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
