The 16th annual International AIDS Conference in Toronto this week sparked news from several companies working to get treatments to the world's developing nations while setting their sights on developing a vaccine.
The conference focused mainly on prevention and raising awareness, with scientists and politicians speaking about the need to enhance access to therapies worldwide. In conjunction with the conference, drug makers announced several initiatives designed to widen distribution of HIV medicines, and provided updates on drug trials currently underway.
Gilead Sciences Inc. said it reached an agreement with Merck & Co. to distribute Atripla in developing nations. It is the first once-daily HIV treatment to hit the market. The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in July and is a combination of three drugs, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead.
Gilead also licensed its generic HIV drug Viread to three Indian manufacturers, saying the competition could help drive down prices in developing nations.
Results of a study testing Gilead's Viread as a preventive drug, rather than as a treatment, were released during the conference. The experiment, conducted in Africa and sponsored by the Gates Foundation, proved that the drug is safe when used for HIV prevention. Although though fewer women taking the drug caught HIV compared with those on placebo, the company said results were inconclusive because few women in either group became infected. Another Gilead HIV drug, Truvada, is currently being tested for preventive use in several other countries.
German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim also unveiled a study of its HIV drug Tipranavir for use in infected children. The results showed that the drug reduced the amount of the virus within the bloodstream of almost all the children in the study.
And Merck & Co. said Thursday it will offer its experimental HIV treatment to patients who want to take it but are unable to participate in a clinical trial. In the next few months, Merck will expand access to its HIV integrase inhibitor MK-0518 under laws that allow a company to offer experimental drugs to patients with a life-threatening illness who cannot be satisfactorily treated with existing drugs.
While the core focus of the conference remained prevention and affordable access to treatment, participants also discussed vaccine prospects.
The development of a vaccine is likely far off, according to Rowena Johnston, director of research at amfAR, The Foundation for Aids Research. One hot topic discussed among researchers, she said, is the discovery of just how fast HIV attacks cells in the colon upon infection.
"Some of the most devastating effects happen very soon after it enters the system, and you need a vaccine to get to those early manifestations," she said.
Across the globe, more than 39.4 million adults and children are living with HIV and/or AIDS. In 2004, there were 4.9 million new HIV infections, and 3.1 million adult and child deaths due to HIV or AIDS. Nearly half of newly infected adults are women.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, there have been more than 20 million AIDS deaths documented.
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