Twenty years of information,
advocacy and inspiration—1987

Project Inform achievements (1985–2004)     View PDF

Project Inform milestones:

• Published PI Perspective, the first community newsletter to blend cutting edge treatment education, advocacy, and commentary.
• Led the community campaign to support the development of the FDA “Treatment IND Regulations” to significantly enhance access to experimental drugs.
• Initiated the first community negotiations with a drug company to resolve a pricing dispute.
• Became the first nationally known AIDS organization to call for people to “get tested.”

Epidemic milestones:

• The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, National Minority AIDS Council and National Task Force on AIDS Prevention form.
  The FDA approves zidovudine (AZT/Retrovir), the first antiviral agent to treat AIDS. At $12,000 a year, it is one of history's most expensive drug therapies.
• The 3rd International AIDS Conference is held in Washington, DC.
• The Names Project displays the AIDS Quilt in Washington, DC for the first time, with 1,920 panels on the Mall.
• FDA sanctions first human testing of candidate vaccine against HIV.
• FDA creates new class of experimental drugs, Treatment Investigational New Drugs (INDs), which accelerates drug approval by two to three years.
• U.S. adds HIV as a “dangerous contagious disease” to its immigration exclusion list; mandates testing of all applicants.
• U.S. Congress adopts Helms Amendment banning use of federal funds for AIDS education materials that “promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities,” often referred to as the “no promo homo” policy.
• CDC holds its first National Conference on HIV and communities of color.
• “And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic”, a history of the early years of the epidemic by Randy Shilts, is published.
• President Reagan makes first public speech about AIDS; establishes Presidential Commission on HIV (Watkins Commission).
• Entertainer Liberace dies of AIDS.
• U.S. TO DATE TOTAL:  59,572 AIDS cases; 27,909 AIDS deaths