FDA delays decision on drug to prevent HIV
Source: washington post
The Food and Drug Administration is delaying by three months a decision on whether to approve a drug for preventing infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
An agency decision on the drug Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences, was expected by June 15. But the decision was pushed back to give the agency time to review a new Gilead plan to limit the risks to healthy people taking the drug, Cara Miller, a company spokeswoman, said Friday.
If approved, Truvada would become the first drug marketed for prevention of HIV. The FDA will now make a decision by Sept. 14.
In May, a committee of FDA advisers recommended that the agency approve Truvada for HIV prevention in specific high-risk groups, including men who have sex with men and partners of those infected with HIV.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-delays-decision-on-drug-to-prevent-hiv/2012/06/08/gJQAlaRGOV_story.html?wprss=rss_politics
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who will the insurance mafia allow to get this drug? Will it only be the partners of HIV infected people? Will you have to say your lifestyle puts you "at risk?" Or will just anyone be covered by their prescription insurance if they decide they need to take this medicine? As a single, older person, (if the side effects are not insane) I may want this medicine, "just in case."
IDK anything about this new medicine but it does create a lot of questions. Will a person have to take it daily for a prolonged period before it is effective? Will it protect those in the "sex industry" and restore condoms to the role that they played pre-AIDS?
I lived through the "free love" days, when condoms were not very popular because if you contracted an STD, you could be cured with a shot of antibiotics. I think this medicine has the potential to remove a lot of the fear from sexual intimacy, and that is good. I can imagine that many (supposedly) religious zealots, who claimed that AIDS was God's retribution against gay people are really pissed off. In their ignorance they did not consider that AIDS was not contained to any sexual proclivity group. It is universal, with the poorest nations suffering disproportionately. If this will actually prevent AIDS, it will, IMO, usher in a new era of freedom that we have not experienced in decades. Taking the fear out of intimacy will really piss off a lot of supposedly religious people.
