SUPER-FAST TRACK HERE - if trials go well.
Note this article from early summer.
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday June 20, 3:13 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: International HIV Immune Based Therapies Working Group
AIDS Activists, Legislators Demand Access to Immune Based Therapies
NEW YORK, June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Adanti Acosta, chairman of the International HIV Immune Based Therapies Working Group based out of the Brooklyn Medical Arts AIDS CARE Center and other AIDS activists joined together in an effort to accelerate the development of drugs that can help restore the immune system during the course of HIV infection. During the much anticipated public meeting on June 19 in Brooklyn, led by some of New York State's highest ranking legislators including Congressman Ed Towns and Congresswoman Nidya Valasquez, the overwhelming conditions of the AIDS crisis facing this region of New York were discussed. Many nationally known AIDS activists took the opportunity to call for action to improve the availability of immune based therapies.
Amongst cries being raised from a packed audience for more social service allocations and better epidemiological interpretations of the data coming from the nation's epicenter were pleas from people in attendance who had exhausted their clinical options because of the development of resistance and were hoping for immune based therapies.
``The AIDS crisis in Brooklyn is being worsened by a lack of access to promising therapies as much as by a lack of service provision. Our actions at this meeting assure that these legislators are encouraged to recognize this and take significant steps to resolve this disparity before more lives are unnecessarily lost,'' said Acosta, the chairman of the International HIV Immune Based Therapies Working Group, a coalition of AIDS activists advocating for the approval and access of immune based therapies showing promise in treating AIDS.
``We feel confident that the AIDS Clinical Trials Group's and the Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS are soon going to provide enough scientific concern to investigate these promising therapies,'' said Jeannie Gibbs, who was also in attendance. Gibbs, a veteran AIDS treatment activist of ACT UP, The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a national organization of AIDS activists concerned with the approval of drugs for the treatment of HIV also commented on plans by AIDS activists to demonstrate during the 13th World AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa in July. ``Many AIDS activists and clinicians feel that immune based therapies are long overdue. We're going to Durban to ensure that progress is going to be made so that these drugs take a prominent position on the international research agenda.''
``Many of these therapies have not come to their full maturity,'' said Sherry Hale, another member of ACT UP Brooklyn and a woman living with AIDS. ``It seems that the interest in immune based therapies as an alternative for patients with multi drug resistant viremia is growing amongst clinicians. Many AIDS activists already advocate for the approval of IL-2 (manufactured by Chiron), Remune (manufactured by Aggoron Pharmaceuticals) but we need to remember that Ampligen (manufactured by Hemispherx Biopharma) and HE 2000 (manufactured by Hollis Eden), and other therapies show significant promise and need to be moved forward to keep up with the pace of the epidemic.
Congressman Towns reassured attendees at the forum that he would be willing to take further action to ensure that the FDA is taking steps so that the development of immune based therapies are proceeding in a timely manner. ``I would like to meet with Commissioner Henney on this issue. I'm very concerned that people living with AIDS in my community don't have access to these medications yet.''
SOURCE: International HIV Immune Based Therapies Working Group |
