An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
May 2nd, 2013
How to Interpret Medical Breakthroughs in the Mainstream Media
There it is, right in your daily paper, on your tablet or computer screen, or wherever you get your news today — a headline about a great medical breakthrough everyone’s been waiting for: Scientists on brink of HIV cure Researchers believe that there will be a breakthrough in finding a cure for HIV “within months” Yes, […]
April 5th, 2011
Scamming Academic Journals
Academic scams are not just limited to meetings. Every so often, I receive an e-mail that goes something like this: Dear Dr. Sax, The journal Contemporary Organic Biosynthesis [journal name made up] covers all the latest and outstanding developments in organic biosynthesis studies. It is one of the leading journals for expert reviews in the field. Please visit […]
June 16th, 2010
Another HIV Drug Development Program Bows Out
Last month, Avexa announced that they will not be going forward with their development of the investigational NRTI apricitabine. Now Myriad says its program to develop bevirimat is closing as well. The problems with these drugs — twice daily dosing with apricitabine, formulation and mixed responses with bevirimat — are not the real story here, since arguably we […]
March 10th, 2010
The Extraordinary Power of Placebo
Just published in the journal Neurology — not typically on my radar screen — is this remarkable study comparing pregabalin to placebo for HIV-related distal sensory peripheral neuropathy. Here are the results: At endpoint, pregabalin and placebo showed substantial reductions in mean Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) score from baseline: -2.88 vs -2.63, p = 0.3941. (-snip-) […]
February 4th, 2009
Brush with Greatness: Bruce Walker
Bruce Walker has just received a $100 million grant from Terry and Susan Ragon to start a vaccine research institute, with a focus on finding an HIV vaccine. The news of this gift (which as you can imagine has been floating around these parts for some time) is all the more remarkable since it comes […]
October 8th, 2008
The French Win This One
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for discovery of HIV. They each get one-quarter of the prize money, with one-half going to Harald zur Hausen for showing the relationship between human papillomavirus and cervical cancer. For the record, if you search the Nobel press release for the word “Gallo”, […]