Getting spliced: New drug targets HIV's assembly kit

This is fantastic news. Here's hoping further tests pan out. This prototype kicks HIV/AIDS in the ass.

A prototype drug, tested on lab-dish samples of the AIDS virus, has shown great promise in attacking HIV from an unprecedented direction, French researchers reported on Friday.

Via AFP.

Merck cuts price of Efavirenz in Thailand

If you believe this bullshit I'd like to talk to you about some choice land I have for sale in Louisiana's swamps.

Merck & Co. announced on Thursday price cuts for its HIV-AIDS drug, Efavirenz, in poor countries and those hard hit by the disease, including Thailand which plans to make copycat versions of the medicine.

Thailand, which shocked Merck in November when it announced plans to break the company's patent for Efavirenz, would see its price drop to 700 baht ($19.59) per patient per month.

Merck had previously sold Efavirenz at a non-profit price of 1,300 baht per treatment per month in Thailand, which plans to import Indian-made versions of the drug for 800 baht per month until it is available from Thailand's state-owned drug maker.

"Merck is lowering the price of the 600 mg formulation of Efavirenz due to efficiencies resulting from improved manufacturing processes," the company said.

A spokesman for Merck's Thai subsidiary also attributed the lower Thai price to a more favourable exchange rate.

I love it when corporations try to espouse how benevolent they are and how they're really concerned about people. Truth is, Merck would be unable to make any money in Thailand on Efavirenz if Thailand broke the patent. So they're just salvaging what they can. They're attempting to preserve some market share. This isn't rocket science. Companies work all the angles. Some income is better than none.

Let me go on record here. I don't think big pharma has an obligation to save people at their expense. I do feel they should take a financial hit in some situations. HIV-AIDS can't be cured. Merck's drugs just prolong life. For now that's the best we have. Jack up the prices a little on other drugs and give the HIV-AIDS drugs for free. Humanitarianism ain't a bad thing.

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Some good news for a change

The good news is scientists may have identified the Achilles heel in the HIV.

Scientists have captured an image of the AIDS virus in a biological handshake with the immune cells it attacks, and said today they hope this can help lead to a better vaccine against the incurable disease.

They pinpointed a place on the outside of the human immunodeficiency virus that could be vulnerable to antibodies that could block it from infecting human cells.

US National Institutes of Health researcher Peter Kwong said the study, published in the journal Nature, may reveal HIV's long-sought "site of vulnerability" that can be targeted with a vaccine aimed at preventing initial infection.

"Having that site and knowing that you can make antibodies against it means that a vaccine is possible," Kwong said in a telephone interview.

"It doesn't say we've gotten there. But it's taken it off the list from an impossible dream and converted it to something that is a (mere) technical barrier."

Experts agree that a vaccine is the only hope of stopping the pandemic of AIDS, which has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981. About 40 million people now live with HIV, with sub-Saharan Africa hardest hit.

Note: I did the research and it appears HIV and AIDS are acceptably interchangeable terms even though they aren't quite the same thing.

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