Debating the Relevance of Super SIVs— Plus Dendritic Cells Make Their Big Screen Debut By Richard Jeffreys HIV, in flagrante delicto With part two of our review of the immunological and vaccine offerings at this year’s Retrovirus conference, Richard Jefferys…
Activist Coalition’s Cries Threaten To Scuttle BMS’ Race To Full Approval For Wily Reyataz Getting the labeling wrong On May 13 an FDA advisory committee gave backing to the full approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s new protease inhibitor, atazanavir (Reyataz). The…
By Richard Jeffreys The field of immune-based therapies (IBT) offers hope that researchers can develop strategies allowing people with HIV to delay or interrupt antiretroviral therapy, ideally reducing drug resistance problems and side effects due to HAART (highly active antiretroviral…
Acute Rx Paradigm Dealt Heavy Blow, While Neutralizing Antibodies Stage a Comeback By Richard Jefferys Remune to the Rescue? The immunological offerings at this year's Retrovirus conference seemed full of challenges to the conventional wisdom -- just the sort of…
Can a Conference (and an Activist) Outlive Its Utility? A Moment of Unabashed Navel Gazing By David Barr Life Without AIDS, Nearly ACT UP/Paris founder Didier Lestrade put away his Doc Marten black high-top boots back in the Mitterand years…
January: HIV vaccine papers in Nature by Merck's Emilio Emini, Harvard's Dan Barouch. February: First ATAC (AIDS Treatment Activist Conference) teach-in, Seattle (seventy people attend), followed by ATAC/BMS meeting and Retrovirus conference. NIH cancels large phase III canarypox HIV vaccine…
Having Sired Twin Failures Hivid and Invirase, Roche Tempts Fate With High Profile T-20 Launch By Rob Camp and Matt Sharp Rapacious Returns "If 12,000 people were to take Fuzeon at $20,000, Roche would reap about $240M in revenues. By…
MSF, Oxfam Redefine the Possible, and Y2K Activist Trek to Durban Marks a Watershed By David Barr Small Piece of History The buzz before Durban was all about security. The crime would be terrible. No one would be able to…
January: TAG's Gregg Gonsalves becomes GMHC Director of Treatment Policy. Completion of STI Workshop 2000 report. FDA hearing on salvage therapy trial design. Merck meeting on promising DNA/adenovirus HIV vaccine. TAG mobilizes 600 signatures on global letter to Glaxo decrying…
Tissue T-Cell Analysis Represents Renewed Challenge to "Tap and Drain" Orthodoxy By Richard Jefferys Most Comprehensive Analysis One of the central tenets of HIV pathogenesis is that the virus causes a slow but progressive decline in CD4 T-cell counts. This…