Tenofovir (Viread[R]) access for poor countries.On December 17 Gilead Sciences Gilead Sciences NASDAQ: GILD is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes therapeutics to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. announced that it would make its antiretroviral antiretroviral /an·ti·ret·ro·vi·ral/ (-ret´ro-vi?ral) effective against retroviruses, or an agent with this quality. an·ti·ret·ro·vi·ral adj. (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate tenofovir disoproxil fumarate Viread Pharmacologic class: Nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor Therapeutic class: Antiretroviral Pregnancy risk category B , brand name Viread) available at cost to qualified organizations providing HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. treatment in all 53 nations in Africa, and 15 additional countries classified as "least developed" by the United Nations. The company said the program would be running by the second quarter of 2003. Information and technical assistance in applying for and using the drug will also be provided.Also, Gilead will participate in the 3,000-patient Development of Antiretroviral Therapies (DART) study, sponsored by the UK's Medical Research Council, which will begin in 2003 in Uganda and Zimbabwe, to evaluate antiretroviral treatment strategies where resources are limited. In addition it is studying tenofovir to prevent transmission of HIV. The text of the press announcement is at: http://www.gilead.com/wt/sec/pr_1040081128. For more information about the drug, see http://www.viread.com. Comment Tenofovir is an important drug because it is easy to use (one pill per day), has less problem with side effects Side effects Effects of a proposed project on other parts of the firm. than most antiretrovirals, and leads to relatively slow development of HIV drug resistance HIV drug resistance Antiretroviral drug resistance AIDS The resistance of a strain of HIV to an agent–eg, a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, which occurs in 5%-20% of those newly infected with HIV . However, side effects and drug resistance do occur--and resistant virus is likely to be cross-resistant to AZT AZT or zidovudine (zīdō`vy  dēn'), drug used to treat patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS; also called and to some other HIV drugs as well. So when used to treat existing HIV infection, tenofovir must be combined with other antiretrovirals to reduce this resistance. This is not the only program to provide an antiretroviral at cost in some poor countries. It may be better designed than some of the others, in reducing cumbersome country-by-country negotiation and administration. There are some concerns. "At cost" can translate to several times the price at which a generic manufacturer could sell the same drug at a profit. This is because proprietary pharmaceutical companies have so high a profit margin on each pill sold that they have little incentive to automate production efficiently. Also, accounting practices can differ greatly, including which expenses to count in the "cost" of a particular operation. The real issue is not to get rid of profit, but to develop workable systems for getting treatment to people who cannot afford rich-country market prices, using both efficient production and public funding Public funding is money given from tax revenue or other governmental sources to an individual, organization, or entity. See also
It is impossible to solve all problems at once. Gilead did not have to do anything, and we welcome its program as a step in the right direction. |
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