Underground Market for HIV Meds: The New “War on Drugs?”

Could the underground sales of HIV medications could become a new extension of the “War on Drugs?”

This week, three different news stories ran in NYC press about the underground market of HIV drugs being sold, mostly to reach shores outside of the US where the demand is even greater.

City Limits ran a feature story on the issue, explaining that a new bill is being considered this session in Albany, that would increase the penalty for selling prescription drugs in the underground market. They write that if the bill becomes law, “first degree ‘criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions’ moves from a C felony (with likely maximum jail time of five to 15 years) to a B felony, …

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Posted on January 18, 2012 at 6:04 pm

Big PhRMA Backs SOPA Bill

What does an internet piracy bill have to do with drug companies? The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was endorsed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the chief “Big Pharma” lobbyist representing 47 pharmaceutical companies, many of whom produce AIDS drugs.

Though PhRMA has released no official statement on their rationale for supporting the bill, free speech and health care advocates are speculating that drug companies are concerned about competition from online drug retailers, particularly in Canada and India that are promising drugs for American citizens at much lower costs than what can be purchased in the US. They are also likely to argue they’re protecting the safety of the public by preventing people for paying for …

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Posted on January 18, 2012 at 2:20 pm

New Study Details Southern US HIV Epidemic

Just days before the South Carolina Republican Primary (and weeks after Republican Presidential candidates threw people with HIV under the bus), the Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative released a report on the AIDS epidemic in the Southern States.

• 8 out of 10 states with the highest rates of new HIV infections are in the targeted Southern states.
• 35% of new HIV infections were in the targeted states, which contain only 22% of the US population.
• Six of the 10 states with the highest HIV prevalence rates are targeted Southern states.
• The Southern states account for 8 of the 10 states with the highest HIV death rates (deaths per 100,000 population). All nine targeted Southern states …

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  Posted on January 18, 2012 at 11:16 am

• Maryland Senator Seeks to Make HIV Transmission a Felony

  

  The longest serving Maryland State Senator Norman Stone Jr. has introduced a bill that would make HIV transmission a felony charge in the state, according to Think Progress.

  I would like to remind Senator Stone of Shanika Pretlow. Pretlow was a 26 year old Baltimore resident who was murdered by a man she’d had unprotected sex with in 2005. The man said he killed Pretlow because he contracted HIV from her. An autopsy showed she was HIV negative at the time she was murdered.

  Even if she was HIV-positive, she did not deserve murder, and similarly, imprisonment for HIV transmission is not a public health solution. Further stigma and discrimination will only lead to more violence, and …

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  Posted on January 17, 2012 at 5:45 pm

• ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Hits 4,717

  

  As of January 12, the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs had hit 4,717 people across 12 states.

  The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased more than 5,000 percent since August 2009, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. The federal government has reacted with little urgency, however, allotting just $25 million in additional dollars to the program for FY 2012.

  To help readers keep tabs on the growing ADAP crisis, we are now posting the ADAP Watch—the document that tracks increasing cuts to the program—each week, and including it …

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  Posted on January 17, 2012 at 3:06 pm

• NYS Free Health-Related Legal Services Bill Signed, Lacks Funding

  

  Late last year Governor Cuomo signed a bill into law that helps NYS health care providers to combine free health related legal services in their facilities to people in need "to resolve legal matters or needs that have an impact on patient health or are created or aggravated by a patient's health."
  
  "Housing Works is very proud to have supported this bill from the beginning, but we hope the legislature provides funding to make this a reality," says Carmelita Cruz, Carmelita Cruz, Director of NYS Advocacy & Organizing for Housing Works.
  
  

  According to Monica Miller, Senior Legislative Associate for the bill's sponsor Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, the bill was initially written with a funding plan attached. But given …

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  Posted on January 12, 2012 at 4:30 pm