Gene Testing Cuts Side Effects

posted: 12/01/2011

Testing people before they start HIV treatment for specific genes could stop many people suffering treatment side effects and avoid the need to change HIV treatment, new research suggests.

Like any medicine, HIV treatment drugs can cause side-effects. There are 23 genetic variations HIV doctors can now use to predict bad reactions, before patient and doctor decide what treatment drugs would be best.

Gene variation says no to Abacavir
We know well that people who have an allergic reaction to the drug abacavir (Ziagen, also in the combination pills Kivexa and Trizivir) have a gene variation that can be easily found.

People should always be tested for this gene before they start treatment with this drug. If you are tested and your result is positive, you shouldn’t take abacavir.

Other genes for other drugs
Now researchers have found that some genes increase the risk of side-effects caused by several other anti-HIV drugs.

They tested 577 patients starting HIV treatment for the first time to see if they had variations in genes associated with certain side-effects.

These were mood and sleep problems caused by efavirenz (Sustiva, also in the combination pill Atripla), and a non-dangerous yellowing of the skin and eyes caused by atazanavir (Reyataz).

Genes – side effects up to 9 times worse

People taking efavirenz who have the warning gene have much higher rates of mood and sleep problems – these are three times worse if you have this ‘warning’ gene.

The risk of atazanavir-related side-effects was increased nine-fold among people with the ‘warning’ gene for that.

We need more research into drug side effects linked to genes, the researchers say.

More side effects information

For more information on the side-effects of HIV treatment, NAM and i-Base both produce good side-effects booklets
 

Nam booklet – Side Effects

i-Base booklet - HIV and your quality of life: a guide to side effects and other complications
 

HIV, treatments and genes website
There is a useful new website on HIV, drug treatments and genes – HIV pharmacogenomics

More information on genetics and HIV treatment

Source, with reference 

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EU Blocking Cheap HIV Drugs

posted: 08/10/2010

The EC is pushing for a trade agreement with India which will restrict companies from making cheap copycat drugs for poor countries, says MSF. In 2001, when the Doha declaration was signed, it was widely thought that the battle for cheap drugs for developing countries had been won.

The declaration created a helpful loophole in the medicine patent rules. Indian companies and those in other countries would be licensed to make cheap copies of patented HIV and other drugs for poor countries.
 

Fight-back against drug company and EU
Now Médecins Sans Frontières, is accusing the European Commission of aggressively pushing policies - including a trade agreement with India - that will dry up the flow of cheap drugs to those who badly need them in poor countries.
 

Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine
A three-month campaign, called "Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine", launched today, invites people to let the EC know they object by an easy email system. The emails go to the Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht. "If you continue to pursue your actions, people who rely on these medicines to stay alive will be left without a lifeline and many are likely to die," it says.
 

Send an email today

Tough language, but MSF believes the stakes are high and argues that the EC has been doing the bidding of the multinational drug companies (who want to protect their drug monopolies) for some time and in a number of ways. This is what Dr Unni Karunakara, president of MSF's international council says:
'We depend on access to affordable medicines like those produced in India to treat all kinds of diseases. We buy 80% of our AIDS medicines from India - medicines that keep 160,000 people alive today. On their behalf, we cannot remain silent as Europe works to close the door on every aspect of drug supply - the production of a generic medicine, its registration, and its transportation to patients in other parts of the world. So today we are launching a campaign demanding 'Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine.'

Tougher patent rules
There are several issues. The free trade agreement is seeking tougher patent rules than the existing World Trade Organisation agreement requires, says MSF. The EC wants to introduce "data exclusivity", which would stop a generic company registering a copy of a drug without running its own expensive and lengthy clinical trials. This would seriously delay the supply of generic versions.
One example is nevirapine syrup for children with HIV. It does not have a patent from the Indian patent office, which means generics companies could copy it. If there was data exclusivity, children in Africa would have had to wait for years.
 

Generic HIV drugs seized at ports
But the campaigners also take issue with the EC over a number of seizures of generic drugs that have taken place in European ports since 2008. AIDS drugs intended for Nigeria, bought by the European-funded access to medicines organisation UNITAID, were seized in the Netherlands.

EU pawn of drug companies
Michelle Childs, policy advisor for MSF's access campaign, says the EC is doing the pharmaceutical's industry bidding. "The IFPMA [the trade body] has said they want data exclusivity. They have repeatedly asked for this. It's been a long-standing aim of the pharmaceutical companies to introduce this because it gives them the extra period of time."
The Office of the EU Trade Commissioner denied it was impeding access to medicines for the poor. This was what its spokesman told the BBC:
‘The EU has never and will never stand in the way of the production of legitimate generic medicines. The EU is in favour of providing access to medicines to people in need and these negotiations with India do not stand in the way of this. Patents are important, they need to be protected. The European pharmaceutical companies say that the patents need to be protected otherwise the production of new drugs will be seriously in peril.’
MSF simply points out that the issue is not about patents.

Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine

Source
 

New Treatments Pipeline

posted: 10/09/2010

If you want to know about all the future treatments, tests, and prevention for HIV, hepatitis, and TB, the Treatment Action Group (TAG) have produced a new guide. It deals with

• future HIV antiretroviral treatments
• future ways of diagnosing HIV
• future HIV antiretroviral treatments for babies, children and young people
• future immune-based therapies and preventive technologies - like vaccines and pre-exposure prophylaxis (which means treatment to prevent HIV infection)
• future hepatitis B treatments
• future hepatitis C treatments
• future diagnosis, treatments and vaccines for tuberculosis (TB)

It's not an easy booklet to read, but there are 150 pages of information about new HIV treatments in the development 'pipeline.' That is a lot of new developments that should continue to steadily improve the quality and length of life people with HIV can expect.

TAG 2010 Pipeline Report from i-BASE

Treatment Action Group (TAG)

Pride excess and risks

posted: 27/08/2010

Pride is a tempting party time of drink, drugs and sex. So what’s not to like? The crowds, scene atmosphere and all-out hedonism drive some of us past our limits. Our livers complain, there are comedowns, and if we ‘forget’ and don’t use condoms, we may end the weekend with HIV or some other STI, or pass something on.

How can we stay more in control?
We can all use tips and tricks.

Set yourself strict limits and party only on special occasions, so you might decide one night only over the weekend, and set a limit for how late you stay out, the types of drinks, how many, or what you do.

Be more choosy about the situations and people, where the temptations to excess may be too much for you to resist.

Take only so much money, and leave at a time you decided earlier.

Drop the shots and more risky drugs.

Ask friends to watch out for you and help you stick to your rules and limits.

Alternate drinking soft drinks with alcohol.

Choose other ways to enjoy the time with friends – a BBQ, picnic, walk or swim, galleries, shopping, movies or a show.

Abstinence, going on the wagon for a time, works for some.

You can look after yourself and those around you and  have a good time.

Laws Should Not Worsen HIV

posted: 02/07/2010

The ‘Vienna Declaration’  sounds like a half-forgotten piece of school history, but it is brand new and all about ending laws and policy across the world that cause HIV harm. The UN has at the same time set up a brand new Global Commission on HIV and the Law  to deal with some of the toughest issues in HIV. Laws and policies across the world are making the HIV epidemic worse and causing harm to many people. Anti-gay, anti-sex-worker, anti-drug, anti-HIV sex and transmission laws and policies are all the UN Commission’s new battle-ground.
 

If you agree that the law should not criminalise drug users because this makes the HIV epidemic far worse and causes more harm than good, you are invited to sign the Vienna Declaration. The Vienna Declaration is a call from the international scientific community to countries across the world (including the UK) to face the facts and recognise that the so-called 'War on Drugs' isn't working, and causes far more harm than good, particularly in the fight against HIV.

It asks the UN and countries to update drug policy and laws to end this HIV harm, discrimination against people's human rights, and to remove the legal and other barriers to effective HIV prevention, treatment and care.
You can read and sign the Vienna Declaration here  and facebook and twitter it from there
 

Why is the Declaration from Vienna? Well, the International AIDS Conference opens in Vienna in Austria later this month.

This conference is the largest HIV conference, and is held every two years, and is the one where big HIV news on treatments and almost everything else is revealed. 

New - Global Commission on HIV and the Law
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law was set up last month – the secretary general of the UN said “I urge all countries to remove punitive laws, policies and practices that hamper the AIDS response … . Successful AIDS responses do not punish people; they protect them … . We must ensure that AIDS responses are based on evidence, not ideology, and reach those most in need and most affected.”

The Commission has a challenging job – its job is to produce practical steps, based on evidence and that support human rights, that will reduce HIV transmission caused by laws and policies. So it will focus its efforts on ending laws that criminalise HIV transmission and exposure, illicit drug use, sex work, and same sex relationships. Global Commission on HIV and the Law
 

HIV and the Law is part of the Law on Trial  season at Birkbeck College this weekend, and Matthew Weait, a long-time ally of George House Trust and who works at Birkbeck as a senior law lecturer, writes about how the law should not worsen HIV discrimination and stigma, and if laws do this they do not deserve our support.