Project Inform cited in the press

 

HOUSING WORKS AIDS ISSUES UPDATE: FEDERAL UPDATE

April 20, 2006
(mention of Project Inform in bold below)

Let's start with this open invitation to a free reception next Monday, April 24, in honor of the winners of HW's 2006 Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards. Co-sponsored by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), the reception takes place in Mansfield Room S207 of the Capitol Building from 2-4pm.

No RSVP necessary. Just show up and meet this year's Cylar Award Winners: China's Thomas Cai; South Carolina's Karen Bates and Stephanie Williams; the Global AIDS Alliance's Paul Zeitz and Housing Works' own Julie Peña. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served. You'll also get to mingle with a busload of HWers who are coming down from New York City.

And speaking of New York City, don't forget that you can buy your tickets for the gala awards ceremony Wednesday night in Manhattan for the Cylar winners right here! We hope to see you there, getting your groove on in Keith's memory!

RYAN WHITE NEWS
We hear this week that Sen. Tom Coburn, who recently introduced his own maverick RWCA reauthorization bill that closely follows the president's controversial recommendations, will be holding a quickie RWCA hearing next Wednesday, April 26, at 2:30pm in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342.

We hear that the hearing "will examine how federal funding is being distributed to provide AIDS drugs and HIV testing opportunities in the U.S. GAO will present the findings of a just-completed three year examination of these efforts. HRSA and CDC will also testify on their programs."

Moving on ... a few weeks ago, we reported that RWCA's Title III FY06 pot was taking a painful total cut of 2.5 percent from HRSA. Recently, CAEAR Coalition members met with HRSA Title III director Dr. Jose Morales and his staff to discuss those cuts.

According to CAEAR members at the meeting, Morales said that the reasons why the cuts came directly out of program-grant awards this year was because, in previous years since 2003, the cuts—which all HHS programs have been subjected to since then—came out of administrative and side-item expenses, but that was no longer possible this year because all such non-essential admin needs have been exhausted.

In addition, Morales explained why Title III was offering capacity-building grants this year while cutting awards to existing grantees at the same time. Morales said the capacity-building grants would be funded out of unspent funds at the end of the fiscal year, if there were any money left.

Morales explained that such funding could not be used to offset cuts to existing grantees because it was not certain that such funding would be available at the end of the year. Morales also asked that the CAEAR Coalition let Title III grantees know that such capacity-building grants would be available. He suggested that those interested in the grants visit HRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau's website for details and updates.

AIDSWATCH 2006
That's right, folks...it's time to sign up for AIDSWatch! You know what AIDSWatch is, don't you? Traditionally, it's the single largest AIDS-advocacy undertaking of the year, when countless PWAs and their advocates descend on Washington, D.C., get some quick training in advocacy visits, then hit the Hill to press their reps for the funding and policies needed for good HIV/AIDS treatment, care and prevention.

Organized by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), newly led by longtime PWA poobah Frank Oldham, Jr., this year's AIDSWatch will not be the venue for a major national Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA) event, as it was last year. But, in a bow to C2EA, its theme will be "End AIDS Now!"

What's more, trainings will prepare participants not just for a few days of D.C. Hill visits but to go back home and organize and advocate with local- and state-level representatives. Those skills should go hand-in-hand with the myriad C2EA State Capitol Action Days to take place later this year (see C2EA Update in this issue).

PREVENTION WATCH
Speaking of C2EA, we're excited to see—in this story from last week's issue of the Drug Policy Alliance's great newsletter—that Thelma Wright, who was such a C2EA power-player last year in terms of working up the involvement of her home state of North Carolina, is as busy as ever with efforts in her state this year to finally push legal needle-exchange programs through the NC legislature. You go, Thelma—and everyone in NC working on this important issue.

Also in prevention news this week, global prevention advocates are somewhat concerned over this new guidance from the federal Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator outlining what kind of foreign HIV-prevention initiatives for injection-drug users (IDUs) PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) will pay for.

In most ways, the guidance is not a surprise. It upholds the longtime U.S. policy of not funding needle-exchange programs and omits needle-exchange from its list of proven best methods of reducing HIV among IDUs, despite reams of scientific evidence that they dramatically reduce HIV transmission. Confusingly, it also fails to reiterate previous U.S. policy stating that programs receiving U.S. funds are still allowed to partner with donors or governments that do fund needle-exchange.

In addition, the guidance appears to support funding for such drug-substitution treatments as methadone and buprenorphine only for users who have been diagnosed HIV-positive. This is strange, because eliminating or reducing injection-drug use among HIV-negative as well as HIV-positive users obviously plays a key role in reducing HIV transmission overall.

A group of prominent prevention advocates including amfAR's Judith Auerbach have pointed out these concerns in this memo, which they have sent to OGAC. According to Auerbach, the group plans to meet with OGAC deputy Mark Dybul in a few weeks to discuss the guidance—including the puzzling exclusion of HIV-negative IDUs from funding for drug-substition treatment.

We'll keep you posted.

PRICING WATCH
In the past few years, the FDA has approved a handful of drugs like Fuzeon and Aptivus that are critical to the treatment of people who have developed highly drug-resistant HIV. But with each new HIV drug priced higher than the last, costs are now so high (Aptivus at about $13,000 annually and Fuzeon at about $28,000 annually) that many ADAP programs won't even cover these crucial drugs, and even private plans balk at covering them.

Another resistance-busting drug is about to gain FDA approval: the powerful protease inhibitor TMC 114/darunavir. That's why the Fair Pricing Coalition is distributing this sign-on letter urging its maker, Tibotec, to price it at or below the current price of the most popular protease inhibitor, Kaletra (about $8,400 annually)—and to include in the drug's total price the cost of the drug Norvir, which must be taken with it for optimal effect.

Housing Works is signing onto the letter, along with groups including Project Inform, GMHC, CHAMP, Treatment Action Group, Latino Commission on AIDS and Test Positive Aware Network. To sign on, send your name, organization, address, city, state, zip code, phone and email to leichou@aol.com.