Report: Comparison of hepatitis C treatment costs

Estimates of net prices and usage in the U.S. and other major markets The report examines the actual cost of hepatitis C treatments across multiple countries, focusing on media reporting of net prices negotiated between manufacturers and intermediaries. It seeks to go beyond the typical examination ...

September 21, 2016

Aidspan publishes new issue of ‘Global Fund Observer’

Aidspan: Global Fund Observer Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, published Issue 296 of the “Global Fund Observer.” The newsletter features articles on various topics, including the outcomes of the Global Fund’s fifth replenishment conference and whether ending ...

September 21, 2016

CDC sounds more urgent alarm about emerging drug-resistant gonorrhea

The last line of defense against the STI is weakening; however, an experimental treatment showed promise in a recent Phase II trial. If current trends continue, strains of gonorrhea could become resistant to all available antibiotics, putting the 800,000 Americans who contract the sexually transmitted infection ...

September 21, 2016

Global Fund donors pledge nearly $13 billion to help end epidemics

MONTREAL, 17 September 2016 – At the launch of the Global Fund’s Fifth Replenishment, donors pledged over US$12.9 billion for the next three years, demonstrating extraordinary global commitment toward ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria for good. Hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who ...

September 19, 2016

WHO/Europe adopts Action plans for HIV and viral hepatitis

The 66th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe was held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 12-15 September. Representatives from the 53 countries in the WHO European Region debated a set of action plans that affect public health. On September 14 Member States adopted Action ...

September 19, 2016

FDA: Important labeling update

The Food and Drug Administration is announcing that the following HIV drug labels have been updated to include Latuda (lurasidone), an antipsychotic used to treat adult patients with depressive episodes in bipolar I disorder (bipolar depression), and schizophrenia, in adults. Lurasidone was added to Section ...

September 19, 2016

PrEP, test-and-treat offer most cost-effective methods for HIV prevention

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, and “test-and-treat” methods are both more cost-effective than the current strategy for the prevention of HIV transmission among men who have sex with men, according to researchers. The success of either strategy, however, depends on treatment initiation and adherence. “ infects approximately ...

September 19, 2016

Targeting dormant HIV

Discovery of a novel, advanced technique to identify the rare cells where HIV hides in patients taking antiretroviral therapy (ART). This is an important step forward in the search for a HIV/AIDS cure. Why wake up the virus? To better kill it, of course. A team ...

September 19, 2016

Michel Kazatchkine: Intervention on the HIV Action plan resolution

Remarks given by Michel Kazatchkine, UN Secretary-General Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, at Sixty-sixth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in Copenhagen, September 14, 2016 Madame Chair, Madame Director General, I would like to thank the Regional Office for framing ...

September 19, 2016

Twenty years of global surveillance of antituberculosis drug resistance

The development of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis was first documented in the late 1940s, soon after antibiotic therapy was introduced for tuberculosis treatment. It quickly became obvious that combination chemotherapy could prevent the emergence of drug resistance and that patients infected with drug-resistant strains ...

September 19, 2016

CHMP recommends for approval generic version of Truvada

At its September meeting, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended for approval a generic version of Truvada – Emtricitabine/Tenofovir disoproxil Zentiva (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil) for the treatment of HIV infection. Summary of opinion for Emtricitabine/Tenofovir disoproxil Zentiva is available here. Original ...

September 19, 2016