By far the most significant development in “HIV research” in the past fifteen years — and arguably the only development — is the concept of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis or PrEP for short.
Also, I have a great story about how Gilead sued itself in order to promote PrEP. The active drug, tenofovir, was going off patent in 2021, so Gilead paid Treatment Action Group (the astro-turf offshoot of ACT-UP New York) to release a white paper saying Gilead withheld development of a drug called TAF (Descovy) until its drug TDF (Truvada) went generic, even though "TDF was toxic to kidneys and bones." The truth is the two drugs have identical safety profiles. Gilead then paid Los Angeles's AIDS Healthcare Foundation to sue Gilead and planted a story in the LA Times that Truvada was dangerous - creating marketing buzz for the successor drug, Descovy, which is what is being advertised on television. The LA Times PR generated law-firms to spend millions on class action recruitment ads online - all creating marketing buzz that Truvada was more toxic than Descovy for PrEP. Contact me: TomBusse@protonmail.com if you want to learn more and include the story in your expanded book.
Excellent, thank you!
I have an entire website on PrEP: PrepIsPoison.com
Also, I have a great story about how Gilead sued itself in order to promote PrEP. The active drug, tenofovir, was going off patent in 2021, so Gilead paid Treatment Action Group (the astro-turf offshoot of ACT-UP New York) to release a white paper saying Gilead withheld development of a drug called TAF (Descovy) until its drug TDF (Truvada) went generic, even though "TDF was toxic to kidneys and bones." The truth is the two drugs have identical safety profiles. Gilead then paid Los Angeles's AIDS Healthcare Foundation to sue Gilead and planted a story in the LA Times that Truvada was dangerous - creating marketing buzz for the successor drug, Descovy, which is what is being advertised on television. The LA Times PR generated law-firms to spend millions on class action recruitment ads online - all creating marketing buzz that Truvada was more toxic than Descovy for PrEP. Contact me: TomBusse@protonmail.com if you want to learn more and include the story in your expanded book.