Women (still) Don ’t Get AIDS, They Just Die From It
In recent years HIV prevention
science has been revolutionized by the realization that some of the drugs
originally approved to treat HIV infection are also very effective at preventing
HIV infection in people considered at high risk, such as those with
HIV-positive partners. Known as “pre-exposure prophylaxis” or “PreP”, the HIV
medication Truvada (tenofivir plus an older antiviral called emtricitabine) is
now taken on a daily basis by millions of people worldwide in order to prevent
HIV infection. While optimists see PreP as an important step on the road to
“ending AIDS”, critics note that the drug’s $20,000-a-year price tag impedes adequate access both within the U.S. and globally.
On October 3, the politics of
PreP became even more fraught when the FDA granted approval to a second HIV
drug to be used preventatively – but only by men. “Descovy” is made by Gilead Sciences—the same pharmaceutical
company that makes Truvada—and in fact differs from Truvada only slightly in
its chemical structure. For reasons that Gilead has failed to make clear, the
clinical trial of Descovy was conducted almost exclusively in men (transgender
women made up about 1% of the 5400 person cohort). For this reason, the FDA
refused to approve its use in “those who have receptive vaginal sex.”
The case of Descovy is ripe with
some of the same ethical issues that have plagued HIV drug development since
the epide...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Bioethics Today Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
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