Politicians, AIDS experts wage budget debate

Article Abstract:

AIDS advocates are fighting to restore spending authority for AIDS research to the National Institutes of Health's Office of AIDS Research (OAR). OAR spending authority was mandated by the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993. But the House Appropriations Subcommittee transferred that authority back to the Director of the NIH in the federal 1996 budget. Subcommittee chair John Porter (R-IL) believes it is politically dangerous to begin allocating money for specific diseases. Doing so would be a radical change from the way biomedical research has been funded. But OAR advocates say that money appropriated for AIDS in the past was not always spent on AIDS. In March, 1996, 114 scientists, researchers and community activists reviewed NIH's 1.4 billion AIDS budget and one of their recommendations was to restore funding authority to OAR.

Management, Finance, Medical research, United States. National Institutes of Health

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Several new drugs shift direction of treatment and research for HIV/AIDS

Article Abstract:

The emergence of new drugs to fight HIV infection has led to a re-evaluation of the way AIDS research is done. New drugs recently approved by the FDA include another nucleoside analog called lamivudine (3TC), a protease inhibitor called saquinavir and a non-nucleoside inhibitor of HIV reverse transcriptase called nevirapine. But there is little research on how effective these drugs are in combination with each other. The American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) is trying to fund a study of tens of thousands of HIV patients to test the various drug combinations. Other scientists want to use surrogate markers such as viral load and CD4 counts in their research to speed up the clinical testing process. But others think surrogate markers would give misleading results.

HIV infection, HIV infections, Antiviral agents

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Restructure for federal AIDS research

Article Abstract:

A panel of experts convened by the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health has recommended that the entire federal AIDS research program be restructured. The 17-member AIDS Research Program Evaluation Working Group issued a report based on a review of the government's program by 114 scientists, pharmaceutical company officials and consumer advocates. The most critical problem in the federal AIDS program is that NIH employees who review grant proposals are not always aware of the agency's research priorities. The group also recommended strengthening vaccine research, in part by creating an AIDS Vaccine Research Committee, which would be chaired by a non-government scientist.

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