By: lovingitall0
10 Jul 2004, 03:17 PM EDT
Msg. 160339 of 160551
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Device Could Help Global AIDS Treatment

{{{Thanks...Good one Fender!}}}

AUSTIN (AP) - Researchers at the University of Texas have developed a device that allows doctors in remote areas to quickly and cheaply conduct a key diagnostic test for the AIDS virus.

The toaster-sized device was expected to be unveiled next week at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

John McDevitt, a UT chemistry professor, developed the microchip sensor technology that the machine uses to count a type of white blood cell in HIV-positive patients in 10 or 15 minutes instead of days.

Current technology used in the test is expensive and bulky.

Frank Young, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said that's the most important test in helping doctors determine when to start treatment and how to tailor the so-called drug cocktails that patients take.

Longtime Austin entrepreneur Richard Hawkins has been lured out of semi-retirement to run LabNow Inc., the company created to make and market the device.

``This project has the chance to change the way the disease is managed,'' Hawkins told the Austin American-Statesman in Friday's online edition.

He was scheduled to go to Bangkok for the device's launch.

Young is now chairman and chief executive officer of the Cosmos Alliance, a Washington-based biotech investment group that examined LabNow's technology. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation helped pay for the device's development.

Devices that measure AIDS patients' cells, called CD4 lymphocytes, are as big as refrigerators and cost about $75,000. Hawkins said he hopes to get LabNow's device down to $1,000, with each test costing $5.

Drugs for treating AIDS in developing countries now cost $300 a year or less per patient, said the United Nations AIDS program UNAIDS, thanks to government purchasing programs and generic versions. LabNow's device will help doctors decide how to best use the drugs.

``For developing countries, this is going to be extremely important,'' Young said.

An estimated 38 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, according to the United Nations, adding that 90 percent of people who urgently need treatment aren't getting it.



07/09/04 09:09 EDT
 
By: lovingitall0
11 Jul 2004, 09:02 AM EDT
Msg. 160400 of 160553
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Device could help global AIDS treatment

Friday, July 9, 2004

AUSTIN -- Researchers at the University of Texas have developed a device that allows doctors in remote areas to quickly and cheaply conduct a key diagnostic test for the AIDS virus.

The toaster-sized device was expected to be unveiled next week at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

John McDevitt, a UT chemistry professor, developed the microchip sensor technology that the machine uses to count a type of white blood cell in HIV-positive patients in 10 or 15 minutes instead of days.

Current technology used in the test is expensive and bulky.

Frank Young, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said that's the most important test in helping doctors determine when to start treatment and how to tailor the so-called drug cocktails that patients take.

Longtime Austin entrepreneur Richard Hawkins has been lured out of semi-retirement to run LabNow Inc., the company created to make and market the device.

"This project has the chance to change the way the disease is managed," Hawkins told the Austin American-Statesman in Friday's online edition.

He was scheduled to go to Bangkok for the device's launch.

Young is now chairman and chief executive officer of the Cosmos Alliance, a Washington-based biotech investment group that examined LabNow's technology. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation helped pay for the device's development.

Devices that measure AIDS patients' cells, called CD4 lymphocytes, are as big as refrigerators and cost about $75,000. Hawkins said he hopes to get LabNow's device down to $1,000, with each test costing $5.

Drugs for treating AIDS in developing countries now cost $300 a year or less per patient, said the United Nations AIDS program UNAIDS, thanks to government purchasing programs and generic versions. LabNow's device will help doctors decide how to best use the drugs.

"For developing countries, this is going to be extremely important," Young said.

An estimated 38 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, according to the United Nations, adding that 90 percent of people who urgently need treatment aren't getting it.




 
By: lovingitall0
11 Jul 2004, 09:03 AM EDT
Msg. 160401 of 160553
(This msg. is a reply to 160400 by lovingitall0.)
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AIDS testing must be increased to 500,000 per day say experts

10 Jul 2004

Experts say that AIDS testing is crucial if we want to meet the goal of having AIDS medicines delivered to an extra three million people around the world. Experts called for cheaper and better testing as they assembled for tomorrow’s 15th International AIDS conference.

Although drug prices have gone down significantly, often by as much as 90%, testing is still a problem as most HIV positive people do not know they have HIV. Most people are quite well into full blown AIDS by the time they know they have it (most people know about it when it is too late). The later someone is diagnosed the harder and dearer it is to treat him/her.

Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, said "We need the same dramatic movement on price reductions for diagnostics, not only to see whether people are infected but also to maintain treatment, because that has become sometimes now more expensive than the actual drugs themselves.”

Half a million people will have to be tested each day if WHO wants to meet its target of having 3m new people on AIDS medication by the year 2005. This is a huge number of tests.

Another expert said the very figure of 90% (people who do not know they are infected) shows that the testing policy has not succeeded. Most agencies are asking for routine testing. At present, testing is voluntary.

Routine testing means, people who arrive at clinics would be offered HIV tests as a matter of course. They would still be able to refuse, but at least the number of people who are HIV positive and do not know would drop significantly.

There are funds for 52 million tests. If we go back to that figure of 500,000 tests per day, 52m would not last very long.