by Rob Camp
January:
starts as new TAG’s Antiviral Project Director. Rob and Mark to Houston for ATAC structure meeting to develop stronger national coalition, then to D.C. for Federal AIDS Policy Partnership meeting. Talk of coming assault on Medicaid and Medicare. Rob, Mark and Richard Jefferys meet with Office of AIDS Research and NIAID Division of AIDS staff, Bethesda. Death of philanthropist Irene Diamond.
President Bush proposes $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; however, the Administration pushes for just $2 billion for FY2004.
February:
Space shuttle Columbia breaks up over Texas. TAG publishes Daniel Raymond’s report on the fall 2002 TB/HIV community workshop. TAG sponsors HCV/HIV roundtable in Boston, publishes Tracy Swan’s Research and Policy Recommendations for HCV/HIV infection. 10th Retrovirus conference. Meeting with Aventis about their ALVAC vaccine, still in the clinic (barely). VaxGen issues misleading press release on failed AIDSVAX HIV prevention trial.
March:
Rob Camp publishes TAG/ATAC position paper on Roche’s enfuvirtide/T-20 (Fuzeon). TAG cosponsors first International Treatment Preparedness Summit in Cape Town, the first global meeting of 125 treatment activists. Start of U.S. war in Iraq. FDA approves Fuzeon. South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) starts civil disobedience campaign for universal antiretroviral treatment access.
April:
Baghdad falls to U.S. forces. New CDC guidelines on HIV testing.
May:
Rob Camp testifies at FDA hearing on approval for Bristol-Myers Squibb’s atazanavir (Reyataz), the first once daily protease inhibitor. Joy Episalla joins TAG board. Operational research meeting in Stony Point, NY.
June:
TAG testifies at DAIDS meeting on clinical trials network recompetition, Bethesda. Mark Harrington attends 3rd World Health Organization (WHO) TB/HIV Working Group meeting in Montreux, Switzerland. CDC clamps down on San Francisco’s Stop AIDS Project. FDA approves atazanavir.
July:
Jason Osher joins TAG board. FDA approves Gilead’s emtricitabine/FTC (Emtriva). International AIDS Society (IAS) conference on pathogenesis and treatment, Paris. New DHHS antiretroviral treatment guidelines published on the Web.
August:
Mark meets with DHHS AIDS staff in Washington. Blackout in NYC. Rob attends microbicide meeting in D.C. ATAC Drug Development Committee meeting in Chicago about HIV entry inhibitors.
South African government agrees to provide public sector antiretrovirals; plan due in September (it will come out in November).
September:
TAG hires Tracy Swan as Co-infection Project Coordinator. Mark attends WHO TB/HIV meetings in France, the Netherlands, and South Africa. TAG receives $125K for 2nd TB/HIV workshop.
October:
Rob Camp writes TAG/ATAC position paper on GSK/Vertex’ fos-amprenavir (Lexiva). Mark attends writing committee on WHO antiretroviral guidelines for resource poor settings.
TAG sponsors 2nd International TB/HIV community mobilization workshop in conjunction with World TB Congress. 50 activists attend from 25 developing countries.
November:
ATAC Drug Development Committee meets in Bethesda with FDA, Tibotec, and Pfizer. Newly re-revised DHHS treatment guidelines published on-line with input from TAG. Longtime activist, bio-statistics research wonk and PWA Carlton Hogan dies at his home in Minneapolis at age 42.
December:
World Health Organization releases “3×5” plan to treat 3 million HIV-positive people with antiretrovirals by 2005, including antiretroviral treatment guidelines for use in resource poor settings, with input from Mark. ATAC Strategy Summit, NYC. North American AIDS Treatment Action Forum, Phoenix.
TAG gives Research in Action Awards to activist Martin Delaney and Project Inform, dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones, immunologist and ex-OAR Director William E. Paul, and former amfAR Public Policy Director and Irene Diamond Fund President Jane Silver.