AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #135, September 20, 1991
Denny Smith
On September 11, the Harvard AIDS Institute announced that the Eighth International Conference on AIDS, the major AIDS meeting of the year, will take place in Amsterdam in July 1992. It had been planned for Boston; Harvard moved it because "given the continued uncertainty about United States policy restricting entry of HIV-infected people, it was no longer possible to continue planning for the Conference to be held in Boston. Harvard decided to seek a new location for the Conference in order to allow the meeting to proceed." The International AIDS Society and the World Health Organization, principle co-sponsors of the conference, supported the decision to move.
Note
It is our understanding that organizers will aim for a more international focus at this conference than at previous ones. Due to the travel restrictions, U. S. political issues dominated the last two annual conferences (San Francisco in 1990, and Florence in 1991), distracting attention from critical needs in the Third World and elsewhere.
** ACT UP Planning Worldwide Demonstration Targeting Daiichi on Angiogenesis Drug SP-PG
ACT UP/Golden Gate is asking other organizations to join in a worldwide demonstration targeting Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Tokyo and has subsidiaries in Fort Lee (New Jersey), Taipei, Bangkok, Dusseldorf, and Hong Kong. The purpose is to call attention to the slow development of the anti-angiogenesis drug SP-PG, which showed very good results against Kaposi's sarcoma in animals over a year and a half ago. It is also being developed as a treatment for cancer, especially breast cancer.
SP-PG, formerly known as "the secret Gallo KS drug" until Robert Gallo, M. D., identified it at the June 1991 International Conference on AIDS in Florence, may be similar in effect to AGM- 1470 (see article and interview elsewhere in this issue), although the mechanism of action of the two drugs is probably different. The frustratingly slow development of of SP-PG was outlined in an article by Martin Delaney of Project Inform in The Advocate, June 2, 1991 (headlined "Is There a Ready Cure for Kaposi's Sarcoma? : Bungling and Bureaucracy from Tokyo to Washington Prevent Production and Distribution of New AIDS Drug," pages 66-68).
Delaney, who has worked behind the scenes for a year and a half to speed development of SP-PG and has visited Daiichi in Japan, recently told AIDS TREATMENT NEWS that the issue in Daiichi has been "willingness to commit resources to the development of this product for KS. This has been a long-running debate within the company."
Daiichi, according to Diamond's Japan Business Directory 1990, "is one of the larger pharmaceutical companies and noted for its high technological level, high earning power, and excellent financial standing."
For more information about proposed demonstrations, call Linda Dolan, KS Working Group of ACT UP/Golden Gate, 415/861- 2066. Or contact ACT UP/Golden Gate, 415/252-9274, or 415/252- 9277 (fax).
** HIV and Skin Disease Symposium October 4 and 5, New York
On October 4 and 5, the Center for Continuing Education of the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University will sponsor a symposium "HIV & Skin Disease: Issues in Diagnosis & Management," at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Intended for physicians and other health professionals, the meeting will cover a variety of skin ailments including bacterial infections, syphilis, fungal infections, nail diseases, viral infections, parasitic diseases, drug sensitivity, KS, and cancers, plus a number of special topics. Over 25 physicians and other health professionals will teach. The cost is $395 (physicians) or $195 (other health professionals or non-medical attenders).
For more information, call the Center for Continuing Education, 212/305-3682.
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