Tag Archives: AIDS

Biotech, Drugs, Healthcare Products, Healthcare Services, Healthcare Solutions, Medicine, Society

ViroCarb’s anti HIV Crowd Funding Campaign

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Toronto, Canada, December 01, 2014 — /EPR HEALTHCARE NEWS/ — ViroCarb Inc. has launched a worldwide crowd funding campaign to promote the development of its new HIV infection inhibitor.

WORLD AIDS DAY – Make a donation to save lives from AIDS! Support new treatment development at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/funding-a-new-therapy-against-drug-resistant-hiv/x/9240077

Despite the great progress made in HIV/AIDS treatment, there is still an urgent need for new drugs, particularly for people who have had to abandon existing treatments due to HIV drug resistance and side effects.

The current treatment of HIV/AIDS involves the use of three or more drugs from five main general classes, used in combination. While this antiretroviral therapy (ART) has helped to reduced morbidity and mortality from AIDS, long term toxicity and the emergence and transmission of drug resistant HIV strains limit the effectiveness. Thus, despite therapy which can render this a chronic, rather than acute fatal infection, development of new drugs to prevent infection and overcome drug resistant strains, is increasingly urgent.

ViroCarb Inc. is developing a novel technology that addresses infections by drug resistant HIV strains. Developed from the identification of a new, natural resistance factor against HIV infection by scientists at SickKids and Canadian Blood Services, ViroCarb’s inhibitor works against a previously overlooked target on the virus to block HIV from entering human cells, the very first step in the infection. It works against all HIV strains.

Funds are needed to aid in moving forward to support preclinical studies; therefore ViroCarb Inc. has started an international crown funding campaign to carry out these HIV model studies needed before conducting clinical trials.
Please support this new way to block HIV.

Contact-Details: Dr. Mario Huesca
479 Simonston Boulevard.
Thornhill ON.
L3T 4M4 Canada

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViroCarb;
Website: http://www.virocarb.com

 

Via EPR Network
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Global Health Progress Applauds HIV-Prevention Medicine Trial, Encourages Access to Medicines in Developing Countries

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The New England Journal of Medicine recently released the results of a ground-breaking trial of an HIV-prevention method called oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Data from the trial revealed an almost 44 percent reduction of new HIV infections among participants who took the antiretroviral tablet daily to prevent HIV, compared to those who took the placebo pill.

Participants in the study included 2,499 HIV-negative gay men, transgender women, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) from Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand and the United States; these were randomly chosen to receive the antiretroviral (ARV) drug TDF/FTC (brand name Truvada) or a placebo pill. Regular HIV tests were administrated throughout the study. At the end of the trial, 36 participants who took Truvada had become infected, compared to 64 of the participants who took the placebo pill.

Similar trials are currently being conducted among heterosexuals in Africa and injection drug users in Thailand. Additionally, a trial of a similar ARV in gel form is currently being tested in three US cities, Pittsburgh, Boston and Birmingham, Alabama.

Global Health Progress is encouraged by the outcome of this trial, as it could lead to the prevention of HIV in developing countries and around the world. However, additional funding is needed not only to continue developing drugs like this, but to increase access to medicines around the world. As the world of medicine continues to advance, it is the responsibility of the entire international community to facilitate access to medicines. Success depends on all sectors working in partnership; not only to make medicines more accessible, but also to ensure continued innovation into new medicines for the treatment and prevention of all diseases.

Research-based biopharmaceutical companies help the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic by providing millions of doses of anti-retroviral drugs at discounted prices and, in some cases, for free to patients in developing countries. These donation programs for Least Developed Countries and sub-Saharan Africa, together with programs for lower and middle income countries, apply to more than 87 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

About Global Health Progress:
Global Health Progress also supports efforts to raise awareness and mobilize resources to address health challenges in the developing world by bringing local leaders together with international health experts, policymakers, donor governments, and the private sector. www.globalhealthprogress.org; twitter.com/globalhealth;facebook.com/pages/Global-Health-Progress/124850684219049; linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2972068

Via EPR Network
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Unitaids Pool for HIV/AIDS Pharmaceutical Patents Appears Flawed

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Recently the International Policy Network (IPN), a nongovernmental educational organization focused on highlighting the role of free society institutions in social and economic development, released a report discussing Unitaid’s proposed pharmaceutical patent pool. Written by Alec van Gelder and Philip Stevens, this report examines the implications of creating a pharmaceutical patent pool for anti-retroviral medicines (ARVs) in order to improve treatments for HIV/AIDs.

The report examines the potential problems associated with this move, which would allow researchers to experiment on patented ARVs in order to create more effective “fixed dose combination” drugs (FDC) for subpopulations in Africa. Unitaid would distribute these new drugs on a non-profit basis, where royalties as determined by patent pool administrators would be paid to patent holders. The authors of the article point to several issues that could arise with this type of patent pool, including:

• Distribution barriers in Africa, where poor healthcare infrastructure and a shortage of trained personnel exists. These barriers could hinder the new
medications from reaching those that really need it.
• Uncertain need for a patent pool type of arrangement, when many companies already allow researchers to investigate patented material. The authors write, “Many companies have established programmes which give academic researchers free access to vast proprietary compound libraries.”
• Unclear incentive for patent holders to give up intellectual property rights to drugs, knowing that the royalties they could receive would be significantly less than what they are receiving now from the patent.

Stevens and van Gelder conclude that this type of patent pool needs a better focus before they would be able to garner support for it within the industry. If the patent pool was to become compulsory, “R&D, licensing production to existing and new FDCs along with access to medicines would be undermined and potentially crowded out of the marketplace altogether by an unwieldy and unworkable bureaucracy.” They add that this would be counter-productive to Unitaid’s efforts, and could slow access to medicines in the countries that most need them.

To learn more about Unitaid’s pool for pharmaceutical patents read the full article here.

Via EPR Network
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Alternative medicine, Child health, Healthcare, Healthcare Solutions, Medicine, Society, Therapies

Continued testing in rural Southern Africa shows promiseful results for those with HIV/AIDS

AIDS Research Assistance Institute, a non-profit organization, has been monitoring hundreds of people with AIDS/HIV when they add the immunity boosting food supplement, ‘concentrated Flax Hull Lignans’ (FHL) to their diets. The results are better than expected and may hold a key for future researchers as they try to find solutions to the AIDS pandemic worldwide.

Boasting a 92% success rate, A.R.A.I. has been involved with rural Southern African grass roots organization leaders who have been giving FHL to people suffering from the AIDS/HIV virus. Typically when an HIV infected person adds 1.5 tsp of the FHL to their daily diet, their viral loads drop significantly (around 35% of them drop to non-detectable within the first 6 weeks!) and their CD-4 counts (measurement of immunity) raise in great numbers. A malnourished child will also typically start growing in height and weight once introducing the FHL into their diets. Many children have grown between 6-11 cm in a three month period!

Researchers can only speculate as to the exact function of the FHL that is causing the success. Many studies have been done in the U.S. by doctors that show lignans boost immunity. The FDA has reported that flax seed lignans have anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungus properties.* Tests have shown that FHL’s ORAC values (measurement of anti-oxidants) are very high. Kale, the super anti-oxidant dark leafy green vegetable, has an ORAC value of 1770, while FHL’s equivalent ORAC value is 19,600. FHL has typically been researched for it’s effects against cancer but now hundreds of people with AIDS/HIV are feeling better, going back to work, and are causing researchers to take a serious look at the possibilities of using a simple, all natural food supplement to help fight AIDS/HIV.

Via EPR Network
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