HIV

During the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Managed Care & Specialty Pharmcy Annual Meeting, held March 25-28, in San Diego, California, managed care professionals from across the globe gathered to discuss opportunities and challenges facing stakeholders in pharmaceutical management, ranging from drug pricing reform to strategies to address the opioid epidemic.

Insurer Centene strikes a deal to acquire WellCare, creating a new giant in the healthcare market; a federal jury orders Monsanto to pay over $80 million to a plaintiff whose cancer was found to be caused by a common weed killer; surgeons perform a transplant using a kidney from a living donor with HIV.

In an ongoing study, researchers seek to determine whether a staggered, "step up" intervention model could be more successful and cost-effective than standard care for achieving viral suppression in youths living with HIV.

Recently published consensus recommendations discuss analytical antiretroviral treatment interruption (ATI), including who can be included and excluded and when to restart antiretroviral therapy (ART).

This week, the top managed care news included new primary prevention guidelines that could increase the use of some diabetes drugs; the FDA expanded criteria for which patients can take part in clinical trials; a summit on value-based insurance design showed the need for tough conversations with stakeholders.

The majority of new HIV infections have been found to be transmitted by individuals who are unaware that they have HIV or by those who know they have HIV but are not receiving treatment to suppress their infection.

Gay or bisexual men who participated in community groups were found have a higher awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) than those who did not. PrEP has proven to be a successful preventive measure to decrease the spread of HIV.

The president has released his budget for fiscal year (FY) 2020, which calls for converting Medicaid to a system of block grants and requiring all able-bodied Medicaid recipients to hold a job or perform community service. The $87.1 billion allocated to HHS, a 12% cut, would include increases to federal HIV funding, but drops in global funding, as well as cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Most patients with multidrug-resistant HIV can still be treated with existing therapies, explained Paul Sax, MD, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard University.

This week, the top managed care news included Scott Gottlieb, MD, resigning as FDA commissioner; Eli Lilly offering a discounted version of Humalog; and a second patient reported cured of HIV.

This is part 1 of a 3-part vaccine series covering the potential of vaccines for infectious diseases, the impact of the antivaccination movement, and the promise of vaccines for cancer treatment.

A second patient has been reported to have been cured of infection with HIV since the start of the epidemic; thousands have reported complications to the FDA with medical devices and implants; a 30-person national ethics committee has been appointed in China to oversee high-risk clinical trials.

Short-term investments pertaining to the distribution of PrEP are expected to result in long-term cost-savings and promote significant health benefits following its introduction in Germany, according to a new modelling study.

Between 2014 and 2017, antivirals were consistently the number 1 most costly outpatient drug group for Medicaid, and HIV antiretrovirals and hepatitis C drugs accounted for more than 90% of spending on these antivirals.

W. David Hardy, MD, adjunct professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University, discusses the importance of identifying patients with undiagnosed HIV and preventing new infections for accomplishing President Trump's plan to end the HIV epidemic in 10 years.

The FDA is warning against services offering to inject older adults with younger people's blood plasma; Gilead is being accused of providing kickbacks to providers to boost sales of its drugs; and a bill in Maryland would allow minors to consent to preventive treatment for HIV.

Kaiser Permanente will waive annual tuition for the first 5 classes of its new medical school, following a similar move by the New York University School of Medicine; menopause is typically thought of in terms of the end of fertility, but more attention is being paid to the effects of the lack of estrogen on the brain; a federal judge has ordered the US Air Force to temporarily stop discharging service members who are HIV-positive.

As survival rates for people living with HIV continue to increase and the population grows older, cognitive impairment is becoming more common.

The HOPE in Action Multicenter Liver Study will determine the safety of 80 HIV-to-HIV liver transplants.

A systematic review has found that immune checkpoint inhibitors are safe in patients with cancer living with HIV, and that these patients have similar objective response rates for certain cancers that have been seen in uninfected patients with cancer.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

This week, the top managed care news included President Trump's State of the Union address highlighting healthcare; HHS Secretary Alex Azar taking on drug rebates; and physicians asking Congress to fully implement the HITECH Act.

Following President Trump’s second State of the Union address, where he announced plans to end the HIV epidemic, HIV experts from across HHS outlined a comprehensive plan of action focusing on diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and response.

During his second State of the Union address, President Trump highlighted past bipartisan accomplishments, such as legislation to confront the opioid crisis, but also outlined future priorities, such as addressing the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs.

While President Trump's State of the Union address is not finalized, he may plan to unveil a promise to end HIV transmission in America by 2030; a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Maryland that claimed the Trump administration is failing to enforce the Affordable Care Act; new cystic fibrosis (CF) treatments targeting the genetic mutations that cause the disease help about 90% of patients, meaning that 10% are still waiting for a cutting-edge therapy.

When the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) released new cholesterol guidelines in 2013, replacing older guidelines and changing statin eligibility, more patients with HIV became recommended for statin therapy. However, many patients are still not recommended for or prescribed the treatment.

Being able to accurately measure HIV reservoirs that remain in the body even during viral suppression is the first step to being able to destroy these reservoirs and, potentially, cure the infection. Researchers say they've created a new technique that will allow them to do so.

Men living with HIV are more likely to develop lung disease from long-term marijuana smoking compared with uninfected men.

The organization's list of 10 health challenges include both environmental and medical challenges they say demand attention from the World Health Organization (WHO) and health partners in 2019.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reviewed clinical trials and cohort studies validating the concept that people living with HIV who have achieved viral suppression can not sexually transmit HIV.