As AIDS Drug Assistance Program Waiting Lists Grow, Pharma Does Not Respond

by Elizabeth Lombino · 2011-03-23 15:49:00 UTC
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As the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) continues to struggle for funding, pharma remains silent.

ADAP is an invaluable state program that assists HIV-positive individuals in paying for their very expensive medications. HIV medications are necessary to treat and manage HIV/AIDS and to prevent disease progression. These medications are necessary to keep a person living with HIV/AIDS alive. Indeed, they are the very reason HIV is now a chronic disease, and not acutely life-threatening.

For a variety of reasons, ADAP funding is being cut in states across the country, leaving many HIV+ adults unable to afford their medications.

The pharmaceutical companies (pharma) that develop and distribute these medications continue to contribute to the problem. The cost of HIV medications remains astronomically high within our country. These high costs are a primary reason that ADAP programs were created. Many people who are HIV-positive and living in poverty cannot conceive of paying for their meds on their own. To be sure, many more HIV-positive individuals with private insurance are also in need of ADAP due to the high costs and/or inadequate coverage.

Yet in the face of this incredible need, states continue to slash funding and place more HIV-positive people on waiting lists. As of March 1o, ADAP waiting lists have grown to 7,261 people in 11 states. More and more people are struggling to afford their medications and the result is more people seeking ADAP assistance. Unfortunately, many of them are turned away outright, or placed on these waiting lists. It is becoming a vicious cycle with HIV-positive people becoming the victims of budget cuts and for-profit company bottom lines.

When we began reporting on the ADAP Crisis, there were 5,100 people in 10 states on waiting lists. This was on January 15, 2011. In just two months, this number has climbed by 2,161 people. This is becoming an even more severe crisis. And remember, this is only the people who have been actively placed on state waiting lists. This number does not account for the thousands more HIV+ individuals across the nation who have been rejected from the program outright, or who have avoided the process altogether because of the lack of assistance.

Every day a person is forced to wait to start her HIV medications is one day closer to her seeing a progression of her HIV disease and a drastic decline in her health.

To date, pharma has not proposed any changes or responded to this crisis. Please join us in urging them to provide low cost HIV medications. Pharma can help ensure that the ADAP Crisis in America does not continue to worsen. They can help ensure another person does not die from HIV/AIDS due to lack of medications. They can truly ensure that all HIV+ people live a long and healthy life.

Photo Credit: Red Ribbon Army

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