Aids research stymied by shortage of funds
July 02, 2003 Edition -1
Lynne Altenroxel
A new Aids drug trial could save the country a fortune.
But it cannot get under way because the scientists planning it are battling to get the anti-retroviral drugs they need.
The approach is called structured treatment interruption, where the drugs are given in an on-off fashion - in this case, 16 weeks on the drugs and eight weeks off.
In theory, HIV patients doing so would suffer fewer side-effects than when they're on constant treatment, while enjoying the same benefits as those on regular therapy.
It could also save money by cutting by one-third the costs of buying anti-retrovirals.
But the trial, by United States-based Aids researcher Luis Montaner, is stuck at the starting gates. Despite being approved by regulatory authorities, it cannot go ahead.
It is one of several South African Aids projects which is on hold unless it gets donor funding to buy anti-retrovirals.
Others include:
"It's a problem when a study gets okayed and it can't go forward because a critical part of the study - medication - can't be paid for," Walker said.
The difficulties scientists are having accessing drugs for research is a new one - and it's exclusive to Aids.
Under normal circumstances, researchers use drugs donated by pharmaceutical companies for their trials. But these trials are normally set up to test the effectiveness of a new product so that it can be registered and sold. In other words, pharmaceutical companies benefit from the research.
Most of the Aids trials experiencing difficulties, on the other hand, would not rake in cash for pharmaceutical companies' coffers.
They are trials in the developing world, set up to iron out problems in providing complex anti-retroviral triple therapy in poverty-stricken areas or to find ways of cutting costs.
With mounting global pressure during the past three years to make anti-Aids drugs available in developing countries, which has been hardest hit by HIV, there has been a sudden increase in these types of trials.
Researchers believe it would be impossible for pharmaceutical companies to donate drugs to all of them.
"The assumption that big pharmaceutical companies are going to bankroll the drugs is naive," said Professor Robin Wood, head of Aids research at the University of Cape Town.
The problem is so large that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is drafting a policy which states that it will not pay for the drug costs.
Scientists have been told by the NIH not to budget drug costs into their proposals. Now they are sitting with several million dollars in funding for everything except the central part of their trials.
Researchers across the globe are facing the same dilemma, and some, like Montaner, whose funding is available for a limited period, are running out of time to find donors.
