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Anti-AIDS pill tests stopped
Source: Agencies |
April 19, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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RESEARCHERS are stopping a study that tests a daily pill to prevent infection with the AIDS virus in thousands of African women because partial results show no signs that the drug is doing any good.
Women taking Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences Inc, are just as likely to get HIV as other women who have been given dummy pills, an interim analysis of the study found. Even if the study were to continue, it would not be able to determine whether the pills help prevent infection, since the results are even this far along, researchers said.
The finding is disappointing because another study last fall concluded that Truvada did help prevent infections in gay and bisexual men when given with condoms, counseling and other prevention services. Many AIDS experts viewed that as a breakthrough that could help slow the epidemic.
Family Health International, a nonprofit organization involved in AIDS research, announced the new results yesterday. The group launched the study two years ago and had enrolled about half of the 3,900 women intended in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. As of last week, 56 new HIV infections had occurred, half in each group.
No safety problems were seen with Truvada. However, women taking it were more likely to become pregnant than those on dummy pills.
"That's both a surprising finding and one that we can't readily explain" by what is known so far about Truvada's effects on women using hormonal contraceptives, said Dr Timothy Mastro of Family Health International. The study was sponsored by the US Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gilead provided the drugs for the study.
Truvada already is sold for treating HIV. It's a combination of two drugs, tenofovir and emtricitabine, or FTC, made by California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. Truvada costs US$5,000 to US$14,000 a year in the United States, but as little as US$140 a year in some poor countries where it is available in generic form.
Women taking Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences Inc, are just as likely to get HIV as other women who have been given dummy pills, an interim analysis of the study found. Even if the study were to continue, it would not be able to determine whether the pills help prevent infection, since the results are even this far along, researchers said.
The finding is disappointing because another study last fall concluded that Truvada did help prevent infections in gay and bisexual men when given with condoms, counseling and other prevention services. Many AIDS experts viewed that as a breakthrough that could help slow the epidemic.
Family Health International, a nonprofit organization involved in AIDS research, announced the new results yesterday. The group launched the study two years ago and had enrolled about half of the 3,900 women intended in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. As of last week, 56 new HIV infections had occurred, half in each group.
No safety problems were seen with Truvada. However, women taking it were more likely to become pregnant than those on dummy pills.
"That's both a surprising finding and one that we can't readily explain" by what is known so far about Truvada's effects on women using hormonal contraceptives, said Dr Timothy Mastro of Family Health International. The study was sponsored by the US Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gilead provided the drugs for the study.
Truvada already is sold for treating HIV. It's a combination of two drugs, tenofovir and emtricitabine, or FTC, made by California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. Truvada costs US$5,000 to US$14,000 a year in the United States, but as little as US$140 a year in some poor countries where it is available in generic form.
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