Disclaimer: Some good lovin’ from time to time is also required.

Because I am blessed and in good health, I only require my fish oil supplement and my multivitamin to get me through each day. I am definitely one of the lucky ones though. For those living with AIDS it is not nearly so easy. The most effective way to slow down the ravages of AIDS has been via a triple cocktail of drugs such as Sustiva, Viread, and Emtriva.

The triple-cocktail treatment for HIV involves taking three different drugs to combat the infection. These medications are two nucleoside analog drugs, such as AZT and 3TC, and a protease inhibitor, such as Crixivan. The drugs drastically reduce the concentration of viri in the bloodstream to undetectable levels by affecting enzymes in the virus itself. The drugs do not completely eliminate every virus in the body and probably never will. It is not certain whether patients taking the drugs may still be able to transmit HIV to other people. In addition, the drugs are not a vaccine which can be prevent a person from being infected with HIV.

The total cost of the medication may be as much as $12,000 a year, although some health insurance companies cover the drugs.[Link]

Some positive news announced late today for those suffering from AIDS:

The first once-a-day AIDS pill that combines three current medicines won U.S. approval on Wednesday, offering patients a more convenient alternative to current multiple drug cocktails.

Atripla, which contains Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s drug Sustiva and Gilead Inc.’s medicines Viread and Emtriva, is the latest step in making it easier for AIDS patients to keep the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV in check — a process that once included dozens of daily pills.

“It’s one thing to have medicine available, but it will only be effective when people can indeed take it as they are supposed to,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Murray Lumpkin told reporters. [Link]

It’s all well and good that they made three pills into a one-a-day but the real test of the relevance of this new pill will be its price in India and in some of the countries in Africa that have the worst AIDS rates. Atripla will reportedly cost $1,150.88 for a 30-day supply in the U.S.

The single pill is good news for the 900,000 Americans who are living with AIDS. But the reality is that most of the 40 million people living with the disease around the world will not be able to access this medication as easily.

“Another thing that is important is that it will likely be the same price as the drugs are now when sold separately, and they’re making it available to developing nations at a lower cost,” said Fauci, who has been researching AIDS since the early 1980s. “This is added good news coming on the heels of a pill developed by a company in India that has one pill containing three drugs, but you take it twice a day. It’s only for developing nations.” [Link]

As you read in the excerpt above, an Indian company developed a similar drug recently since big pharma wasn’t meeting the needs of many in the world:

Washington has barred groups receiving U.S. government funds from buying them, insisting only drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration be used. [Link]

The fact that this new drug is by a western company, slightly better, and FDA approved will hopefully create competition in the market to drive down the price of both. In the end whatever gets the cheapest drugs to the most people will benefit everyone.