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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / AIDS / December 2007Thirty to two
New HIV wonder drug on its way to the EU. :) <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/dec/17/infectiousdiseases.aids>: ----- Begin Quote ----- The EU is expected to approve the first one-a-day combination drug to treat HIV this week, at a time when infection rates in Europe are rising. The pill, called Atripla, is to be marketed by Gilead Sciences, a US biopharmaceutical company, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, the US drug group. It marks a significant change in the treatment of the disease. Just a few years ago, patients were often forced to swallow up to 30 pills a day, and these frequently caused serious side-effects. In the past few years, there has been significant progress. GlaxoSmithKline's Trizivir, for example, an existing combination treatment, has to be taken just twice a day. The current leading treatment in Europe - Truvada and Sustiva - also involves two different pills. Atripla is the first one-pill, one-a-day medicine. It combines the active ingredients of three widely used antiretroviral drugs (Sustiva, Emtriva and Viread) in one pill and has a good safety profile. It was launched in the US in July 2006. Sales of the drug reached nearly $650m (£325m) in the first nine months of 2007 and industry analysts project that Atripla's annual sales will grow to $2.7bn by 2010, eventually peaking at close to $4bn. Public awareness of Aids has fallen slightly in Europe as the disease has become a chronic, manageable condition thanks to scientific progress. It is no longer a death sentence, providing it is caught early. ----- End Quote -----  Signature<http://www.hiv-poz.co.uk/> Moible: +447939991519 4721 days and counting... Martin wrote... > New HIV wonder drug on its way to the EU. :) > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > analysts project that Atripla's annual sales will grow to $2.7bn by > 2010, eventually peaking at close to $4bn. The Atripla pill sounds really expensive, too expensive for the EU to be able to afford to provide to so many new HIV patients. Perhaps the EU and other governments should spend their money trying to get the number of new infections under control, then spend what is left on expensive drug treatments. There will be plenty of money if the new infections are stopped, and no money if they aren't. An alternative approach would be to purchase just enough ARV drugs to treat the existing number of HIV patients, then distribute them among those patients plus any new infectees. The number of pills per HIV patient will decrease as the number of new infections increases, so each AIDS patient becomes motivated to not spread the disease so as to ensure the maximum number of expensive ARV pills for himself. HIV carriers are selfish to the extreme, so this is the only incentive short of quarantine that is likely to be effective. >Martin wrote... >> New HIV wonder drug on its way to the EU. :) [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >> analysts project that Atripla's annual sales will grow to $2.7bn by >> 2010, eventually peaking at close to $4bn. >The Atripla pill sounds really expensive, too expensive for the EU to >be able to afford to provide to so many new HIV patients. When it comes to HIV drug funding I think the sky's the limit in EU countries, at least the richer ones anyway. My HIV guru wanted to start me on a basic treatment plan costing about £1,000 ($2,000) a month. And that's just for the first level of HIV drug treatment, and doesn't include all the incidentals such as drugs to cope with the side-effects. According to <http://www.avert.org/eurosum.htm> there has been 275,570 cases of HIV diagnosed in Western Europe, however that includes some countries that aren't in the EU (or even Europe) such as Israel!!! I believe the total includes those who have been diagnosed HIV+ and died. Well, you have to keep the numbers up some how. The EU does contain some countries from Central Europe, however the number of diagnosed HIV cases there seems to be virtually insignificant. So, I think the EU is trailing some distance behind the US when it comes to HIV rates. Signature<http://www.hiv-poz.co.uk/> Moible: +447939991519 4721 days and counting... Martin wrote... > dank ranted... >>The Atripla pill sounds really expensive, too expensive for the EU to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > doesn't include all the incidentals such as drugs to cope with the > side-effects. I thought all medical care in the UK was "free," so you didn't pay £1000 a month, the oppressed British taxpayers did. Here in the USA we don't have national health care, but the single disease the government does pay for is HIV/AIDS, while Americans with less politically correct diseases like cancer are left to die in the gutter. Our federal government spends several trillion dollars a year on HIV drugs, as well as drugs used to treat "AIDS-related" conditions or even HIV drug side-effects like impotence which is treated with $20 Viagra and Levitra pills. Known HIV patients are given prescriptions for hundreds of Viagra pills at a time, some of which they trade for crystal meth which they use to fuel week- long sex orgies in Palm Springs. |
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