HIV and ID Observations

May 22nd, 2016

Drug Prior Authorizations Are a Very Blunt Tool for Cost Containment — And They’re Annoying

Insurance prior authorizations, or prior approvals (PAs) — those dreaded forms clinicians have to fill out, usually triggered by prescribing a non-formulary drug — are much on my mind these days. And most of it has to do with three letters, specifically “TAF.” As readers of this site probably know, there are now three tenofovir alafenamide (TAF)-based coformulations […]

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November 8th, 2015

New HIV Treatment “ECF-TAF” is Really All About the “TAF” Part

HIV providers and patients recently got this news from the FDA: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Genvoya (a fixed-dose combination tablet containing elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide) as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older. (Disclosure:  I have been […]

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July 25th, 2009

IAS Cape Town 2009: Some Greatest Hits

Below is a highly-subjective list of some of the highlights from the Cape Town IAS meeting. I’m sure I missed something — it’s impossible to see everything at these large conferences.  Corrections/additions welcome! My miss-rate might be particularly high since the international AIDS meetings are appropriately focused on HIV treatment in resource-limited settings (especially Africa) whereas […]

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July 10th, 2009

Time for a Switch? What Actually Happened

A couple of months ago, I presented these three clinically stable, virologically suppressed patients — and asked if they should switch treatment: 50 year old man on ABC/3TC, EFV since 2000.  No renal disease.  Hyperlipidemia, on atorvastatin 80 mg a day.  Father died of an MI age 48. 63 year old man, on EFV + LPV/r […]

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