NEW DELHI: It’s a potent cocktail of rivalries involving pharma companies and NGOs. It has now emerged that Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US-based NGO that accused Cipla of over pricing anti-AIDS drug, Viraday, in India is part funded by American anti-AIDS drug maker Gilead and the NGO’s treasurer is a senior Gilead executive.
This is largely the reason why foreign and Indian NGOs such as Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF), Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+), Indian Network of Positive People (INP+), Sahara and others refused to be part of AHF’s anti-Cipla campaign.
Cipla had refused Gilead’s offer to sell the latter’s anti-AIDS drug Viread under a licensing agreement. Cipla is also the only Indian company opposing Gilead’s patent application for its blockbuster anti-HIV drug Viread in India. The hearing for the patent case of Viread is due in October.
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Friday, August 31, 2007
NEWS WATCH: Prince Calls UK's Diana Worlds' "Best Mother" On 10th Anniversary Of Her Death
LONDON, UK (BosNewsLife)-- Britain's Prince Harry described princess Diana as "the best mother in the world" Friday, August 31, during an emotionally charged memorial service address marking the 10th anniversary of her death.
In April 1987, Diana was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with the AIDS virus, HIV, a move seen as helping to change perceptions about the disease.
“In 1987, when so many still believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand," said former US President Bill Clinton in 2001 at the 'Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture on AIDS.' "She showed the world that people with AIDS deserve no isolation, but compassion and kindness. It helped change world's opinion, and gave hope to people with AIDS," Clinton said at the time.
Prince Harry said that, "behind the media glare, to us - just two loving children - she was quite simply the best mother in the world."
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Nagaland plans all-faith talks
Kohima, Aug. 31: Determined to eradicate AIDS from Nagaland, Naga Church leaders and NGOs are holding talks on a roadmap for an integrated approach to proper care of HIV/AIDS-affected people.
Churches will also hold inter-faith dialogue to carry out a follow-up programme. The prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Nagaland is 1.63 per cent.
The Development Association of Nagaland of the Catholic Church and the Nagaland Development Organisation of the Baptist Church have decided to initiate dialogue with members of other faiths. According to them, AIDS claims more lives than any other disease in the world and a concerted effort is needed to save the people of Nagaland from the incurable disease. read more
Churches will also hold inter-faith dialogue to carry out a follow-up programme. The prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Nagaland is 1.63 per cent.
The Development Association of Nagaland of the Catholic Church and the Nagaland Development Organisation of the Baptist Church have decided to initiate dialogue with members of other faiths. According to them, AIDS claims more lives than any other disease in the world and a concerted effort is needed to save the people of Nagaland from the incurable disease. read more
GLOBAL: Encouraging news in vaccine development
OHANNESBURG, 31 August 2007 (PlusNews) - The long road to developing an effective HIV vaccine has been fraught with false leads and disappointing outcomes, but promising preliminary results from a vaccine study conducted in South Africa and the United States suggest scientists may finally be on the right path.
The phase II study was designed to test for evidence that the vaccine could trigger an immune response - the body's natural defence against infection - and also that it would be safe.
The results are sufficiently positive to support future trials investigating whether the vaccine can actually lower the likelihood of contracting HIV or, at the very least, slow the progression of HIV infection to AIDS. read more
FDA Cites Benefits of Merck HIV Drug
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new HIV-fighting drug from Merck & Co. appears superior to options for patients who have stopped responding to available drugs, federal regulators said Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration said Merck's studies of Isentress show the drug is safe and effective to treat HIV patients who have developed a resistance to other medica .
The agency posted its review of the drug to the FDA Web site ahead of a Wednesday meeting, where outside experts are scheduled to vote on the drug's safety and effectiveness. FDA is not required to follow the experts' recommendations, though it usually does.
The agency granted the drug priority review status earlier this year, meaning staffers would finish the review in six months, four months earlier than usual. A decision is expected mid-October.
If approved, Isentress would be the first in a new class of HIV treatments called integrase inhibitors that block the virus from infecting cells and reproducing.
Government scientists said Isentress has a favorable safety profile, with rash and elevated levels of creatine in the blood reported as the most common side effects.
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The Food and Drug Administration said Merck's studies of Isentress show the drug is safe and effective to treat HIV patients who have developed a resistance to other medica .
The agency posted its review of the drug to the FDA Web site ahead of a Wednesday meeting, where outside experts are scheduled to vote on the drug's safety and effectiveness. FDA is not required to follow the experts' recommendations, though it usually does.
The agency granted the drug priority review status earlier this year, meaning staffers would finish the review in six months, four months earlier than usual. A decision is expected mid-October.
If approved, Isentress would be the first in a new class of HIV treatments called integrase inhibitors that block the virus from infecting cells and reproducing.
Government scientists said Isentress has a favorable safety profile, with rash and elevated levels of creatine in the blood reported as the most common side effects.
read more
Harborview to Offer HIV Clinic in Bremerton
Haborview Medical Center, the Kitsap County Health District and the state Department of Health have announced the opening of a satellite HIV clinic in Bremerton, effective Friday, Sept. 7.
The clinic, a partnership between the three entities, will address the health care needs of HIV infected persons who reside in Kitsap and neighboring counties where access to HIV providers is limited. Currently, almost 300 persons and reported diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Kitsap County, according to the Kitsap County Health District, with close to 1,500 more in neighboring Pierce County. read more
The clinic, a partnership between the three entities, will address the health care needs of HIV infected persons who reside in Kitsap and neighboring counties where access to HIV providers is limited. Currently, almost 300 persons and reported diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Kitsap County, according to the Kitsap County Health District, with close to 1,500 more in neighboring Pierce County. read more
Medical body probes initiates’ views on HIV
A NEWLY released pilot study looking at initiates and initiation ceremonies in the Eastern Cape has probed young Xhosa men’s attitudes towards sex and HIV/Aids.
The report, released this week by the Medical Research Council, was carried out last December in an
effort to understand the initiation and circumcision rite and to find ways to develop a tool to introduce HIV education.
Professor Priscilla Reddy, head of the MRC’s HIV lead programmes, said 114 initiates were included in this pilot study which covered the rural areas of Butterworth, Mount Ayliff and Ntabankulu. She said the pilot study had paved the way for a bigger study to cover most of the Eastern Cape later this year.read more
The report, released this week by the Medical Research Council, was carried out last December in an
effort to understand the initiation and circumcision rite and to find ways to develop a tool to introduce HIV education.
Professor Priscilla Reddy, head of the MRC’s HIV lead programmes, said 114 initiates were included in this pilot study which covered the rural areas of Butterworth, Mount Ayliff and Ntabankulu. She said the pilot study had paved the way for a bigger study to cover most of the Eastern Cape later this year.read more
Gay sex leading contributor to AIDS in Hong Kong
Experts claim that male to male sexual encounters are a leading contributor to the number of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS,by Chris Pycroft - Associate Producer AU on 2007-08-31.
Homosexuals are again being warned about their sexual habits, after Hong Kong has reported its highest number of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in a quarter on record.
111 people were diagnosed with the disease in the April – June quarter, with another cluster of eight Chinese men being diagnosed with HIV-1 Subtype B, and existing groups of people with HIV expanding.
Currently, close to 60 percent of people diagnosed with HIV in Hong Kong contract the disease from male to male sexual encounters. read more
Xi'an appoints three hospitals to provide delivery services for pregnant HIV-positive women
Shanghai. August 31. INTERFAX-CHINA - The government of Xi'an, the capital of northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, has designated three medical institutions to offer birth delivery services to HIV-positive women, the Xi'an Municipal Department of Heath announced today. read more
Director of Waverley Care, which runs Milestone House, says Diana helped take away the stigma of HIV.
Diana visited Milestone House, Britain's first purpose-built hospice for people suffering from Aids and HIV, in October 1991. The Princess laughed and joked as she drank tea with three Aids patients in the hospice conservatory.
She later visited family groups in their private rooms and emerged holding the hand of one woman resident.
"Diana formally opened Milestone House and more than anyone else helped break down the stigma surrounding HIV. She was prepared to be seen hugging and shaking hands with people with HIV in the early 1990s when there was still a lot of hysteria around the topic.
"It made a lot of impact on how people saw HIV. People thought that if it was OK for a princess to do that, then it must be OK.
"People in our HIV sector would want to remember her because she made an important contribution to the field of Aids awareness." read more
Activity of an aberrant enzyme
Israeli scientists have developed a simple activity assay for an enzyme linked to the HIV virus life cycle.
Protein kinase enzymes regulate many cellular pathways, including metabolism and cell movement. While the enzymes are essential for normal cellular function, abnormal protein kinase activity has been implicated in a number of diseases. So assays for protein kinase activity and kinase inhibitor screening have great potential use in medical science laboratories.
Now, Itamar Willner and co-workers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed an activity assay for the protein kinase casein kinase II (CK2), a target of some HIV-1 transcription inhibitors.read more
Indian officials on edge over Burma's HIV/AIDS information black-hole
August 31, 2007 - The Burmese military junta's secrecy over HIV/AIDS infection in the country has Indian officials tearing their hair. With the junta's administration concealing facts on the disease programmes to control the spread of the endemic is being seriously jeopardized.
The District Chairman and other senior officials based in Tamu, a western Burma border township have flatly denied the existence of drug users and sex workers on their soil when Indian officials sought cooperation to fight cross-border HIV/AIDS.
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The District Chairman and other senior officials based in Tamu, a western Burma border township have flatly denied the existence of drug users and sex workers on their soil when Indian officials sought cooperation to fight cross-border HIV/AIDS.
read more
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