Essential Medicines News

“Duke researchers hail new HIV/AIDS test,” Associated Press, 8 January 2007.
An estimated 15% of HIV-infected individuals harbor drug-resistant strains, even if they have never been treated with antiretroviral drugs. Now, researchers at the Duke University Medical Center have developed a test to detect drug resistant HIV in concentrations less than 1%. Existing tests […]

Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon, “Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation,” Los Angeles Times, 7 January 2007.
A Times investigation reveals the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest charitable endowment and a major donor on global health issues, has billions of dollars of investments in unsavory companies. These companies, according to the piece, […]

Rita Beamish, “AIDS program loses track of funds, results,” The Washington Times, 27 December 2006.
A recent U.S. Agency for International Development audit revealed discrepancies in the reporting of contractors and grantees. While the government of Guyana claimed 17 times more AIDS orphans than reality, certain South African provinces refused to report statistics on AIDS […]

JR Minkel, “How Much AIDS Vaccine Do Poor Countries Really Want?,” Scientific American, 3 January 2007.
Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis have experienced about half the expected demand for their drugs artesunate and coartem which they have produced specifically for treatment of malaria in the developing world. This weak demand, which is inconsistent with the actual felt […]

John Carreyrou, “Inside Abbott’s Tactics to Protect AIDS Drug,” Wall Street Journal, p. A1, 3 January 3, 2007. (Subscription required.)
Previously undisclosed documents reveal drugmaker Abbott’s plan to boost sales of their AIDS drug Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir).
The plan: take out a rival treatment option that included its own drug, Norvir (ritonavir), as well as rival companies’ drugs. […]

Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, “Drug costs imperil Brazil AIDS fight,” Boston Globe, 3 January 2007.
Brazil, the first developing country to guarantee free AIDS treatment to anyone who needs it, has faced a steep increase in recent costs. In two years, the country’s spending on AIDS drugs has increased 75 percent.
AIDS activists say that ballooning drug prices […]

The December 2006 issue of the American Political Science Association’s journal Perspectives on Politics features a suite of articles on the theme “25 Years at the Margins — The Global Politics of HIV/AIDS.”
Andrea Densham, “Introduction: Politics as a Cause and Consequence of the AIDS Pandemic,” Perspectives on Politics, 4: 4, pp. 641-646, December 2006.
The response […]