Treatment Action Group Mourns the Loss of Pioneering AIDS and TB Activist Winstone Zulu (1964-2011)
Statement / Press • 2011October 12, 2011 – “Winstone Zulu, the first individual in Zambia to publicly acknowledge his HIV status died this morning 12th October 2011 at University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. Winstone Zulu was born in 1964 in Lusaka, Zambia, the sixth of thirteen children. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1990, he became the first individual…
HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Network to Take On New Research Priorities Under Severe Funding Constraints
TAGline • 2011By Coco Jervis Big changes are planned for the $300 million AIDS clinical trials networks funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Founded in 1987 at the height of the AIDS crisis, the networks are credited with numerous groundbreaking clinical advances in HIV and opportunistic infection prophylaxis and treatment that has prevented countless…
The First New Tuberculosis Drug in Decades: Promise and Challenges
TAGline • 2011By Claire Wingfield After nearly 50 years, there is finally something to get excited about in tuberculosis (TB) drug development. Tibotec’s TMC207—the first compound from a novel class of TB drugs, the diarylquinolines—will likely be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for accelerated or conditional approval sometime in…
TAG Recommendations on Clinical Trials Network Restructuring
Statement / Press • 2011Treatment Action Group outlines issues of concern and questions about network restructuring research priorities and network structure. Jan 4, 2011 – Treatment Action Group (www.treatmentactiongroup.org) is an independent AIDS research and policy think tank fighting for better treatment, a vaccine, and a cure for AIDS. TAG works to ensure that all people with HIV receive…
Can More People Be Put on ART Without Increased Cost?
TAGline • 2010By Scott Morgan With no end to the global funding retreat in sight, new strategies are required to change the way we provide treatment to the world’s 33 million people infected with HIV. On June 7-10, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) hosted a conference, Opportunities to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, to…
What U.S. Health Care Reform Means for People With HIV
TAGline • 2010Slow Implementation for Needed Changes By Sue Perez and Coco Jervis After a century of failed efforts, decades of debate, and months of partisan rancor, this past March, Congress finally passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. The 2010 health care reform overhaul package is…
Treatment Action Group Applauds World Health Organization Endorsement of Rapid TB Test That Could Revolutionize Treatment of Tuberculosis
Statement / Press • 2010A new rapid test for tuberculosis (TB) which was just recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for widespread use has the potential to revolutionize the world’s fight against the disease, said the Treatment Action Group today,
National Institutes of Health Donates Protease Inhibitor Patent to UNITAID Medicines Patent Pool
TAGline • 2010By Mark Harrington On September 30, 2010 the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) became the first research funder to license intellectual property rights to the Medicines Patent Pool essential to manufacturing anti-HIV protease inhibitors. The patent pool is an innovative initiative that — by pooling patents from diverse inventors — will allow the manufacture…
Microbicide Field Wrestles With the Implications of Success
TAGline • 2010By Richard Jefferys and Scott Morgan In July of this year, the stubborn persistence and commitment of microbicide researchers, advocates, and trial participants was finally rewarded with positive results from a South African trial of the gel form of the antretroviral drug tenofovir (trade name Viread). The CAPRISA 004 study, led by the wife-and-husband investigator…
Deadly Economics Threaten Progress to Global Health Goals
TAGline • 2010By Coco Jervis and Sue Perez Over the last few years, G8 and other national leaders have lamented that health care systems in poor countries are inadequate to keep pregnant women, mothers, babies, and children healthy and that universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care services cannot be attained. Yet, at the same time…