TAGline 2004 Table of Contents

Questioning the firewall: "If you have a genuine firewall between the editorial and sales sides of your treatment magazine or website, you would be extremely unusual. For most journals and magazines, the pharma marketing people call the shots."
Truvánadu: Does Gilead's Famed 903 Study Really Show You What They Tell You It Shows?: "Tenofovir/FTC Is Superior to Combivir!!" Is this really believable? Or how about "AZT/3TC equals ABC/3TC"?? Of course not. But you are led to those conclusions by the way the clinical trials are designed. There is an old adage, "How do you survive a fall out of the Empire State Building? Jump out the first floor." So too with clinical trials.
Cell Therapy aka Therapeutic 'Vaccine' Surprise Announcement for World AIDS Day: Even the researchers admit any definitive conclusions must await more rigorous investigation. But on the eve of World AIDS Day the news of a possible novel, less onerous, and much more affordable approach to the treatment of HIV infection splashed across news sites worldwide. (Well, more in Africa, Asia and Europe than in the U.S. Three days into the weekend announcement, in fact, there was nary a word from the Gray Lady, the Washington Post or even the Wall Street Journal.)
Project Inform's IX IRTT: Why the Tap 'n' Drainers Have Always Been Wrong; Plus, A New Theory About MDR HIV: Project Inform, the country's longest serving community-based AIDS treatment information organization, has been sponsoring scientific think tanks on immune restoration since 1992. Their Immune Restoration Think Tank (IRTT) is also known as the 'Dobson Project' in honor of the prime mover behind the early meetings, the widely respected and much-loved San Francisco AIDS activist Jesse Dobson, who died on September 23, 1993. After a hiatus since the last meeting in Chicago in 1999, Project Inform recently held the ninth IRTT at the Nikko Hotel in San Francisco. A full official report of the meeting, including recommendations regarding future research priorities, will be produced by Project Inform and made available on the IRTT section of their website. This article, by Richard Jefferys, will just touch on some of the interesting talks given particularly by immunology researchers attending the meeting.
Dogs and Ponies: Mixed Results (and Lots of Diarrhea) for the Tipranavir Studies; Plus Salvage Study Designs for JNJ/Tibotec's PI and Non-nuke: Boehringer Ingelheim filed its new drug approval applications for tipranavir in the United States and the European Union last month. The plan is to receive U.S. FDA imprimatur by May 2005 and a green light by Europe's EMEA by late summer. Meanwhile, JNJ/Tibotec's protease inhibitor and non-nuke me-toos head into their final lap. (If only they had something innovative and truly useful. But then, the same could be said of BI. Remember when that crazy Kalamazoo outfit was trying to figure out what to do with tipranavir—way back in 1998!) Rob and Mike stitched together this short update.
Who provides you with up-to-date treatment information?: Popular treatment information resources for doctors and patients—and their reliance on pharmaceutical largesse [final table from September special issue]

The Panel Speaks: In a letter dated 10/04/04, the PHS guidelines panel notified Dr. Paul Bellman of its decision regarding the "ban" on hydroxyurea
Treble Damages - Vaccine Scientists Struggle To Come To Grips With the Field's "Berlin": The AIDS Vaccines 2004 Conference was held from August 30-September 1 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the first of these meetings to be held outside the US (the first two were in Philadelphia in 2001 and New York City in 2003). Unlike many recent conferences which have concluded without any clear highlights or obvious signature issues to mark them, the Lausanne conference is likely to be remembered for spotlighting several key themes of broad relevance to the AIDS vaccine field.
Little Leap: Gilead 2-in-1 Opens Door To Impending One Pill Triple Combo: In early August the FDA announced the approvals of two fixed-dose combination (FDC) antiretroviral drug products. FDCs are combinations of two previously approved drugs (à la the Combivir or Trizivir model) in what is understood to be a more convenient form: in both cases, one pill a day. The two new FDCs are GlaxoSmithKline's Epzicom (abacavir+3TC) and Gilead's Truvada (tenofovir+FTC).
NOTE TO READERS/AVISO A NUESTROS LECTORES EN ESPAÑOL: As our translator leaves on indefinite sabbatical, we have temporarily suspended the Spanish translation of TAGline. We apologize to our hispanohablante readership and hope soon to return to a reliable, real-time bilingual service. The silver lining to this otherwise unfortunate turn of events is that it has freed up our middle column for a new follow-on feature which ties into last month's detailed look at Big Pharma's growing stranglehold on the research and care of HIV/AIDS
Now available at the TAG web site: New event and publications list.

The Irony of Bangkok: How To Get 6M Poor People On Antiretroviral Therapy—And 1M Rich People Off: In a brief July editorial, "Freedom of Choice," UK-based AIDS Treatment Update editor Edwin Bernard captures the essence of the present day therapeutic conundrum. "It's ironic," he writes, "that whilst the main focus of this summer's XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok was on finding ways to get everyone who needs therapy onto HAART, treatment interruption has become a hot topic in well-resourced countries, as concerns over resistance and side effects are increasingly recognised as issues in managing HIV disease."
The Agony of Bangkok: Thai Activist Exhorts Conference Crowd To Stand Firm Against U.S. Patent Regime and 'Masks of Fake Concern': The following is the text of an address delivered by Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group director Paisan Suwannawong at the opening ceremony of the 15th International AIDS Conference which took place in Bangkok this summer. Special thanks to Paisan for his permission to reprint.

A CALL TO ARMS: Weaning us off the dope: Veteran NEJM Editor Takes on Big Pharma As No One Before; Calls for Sweeping Reforms