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April 01, 2007
Making it Official
The venerated Institute of Medicine has released a report recommending changes to PEPFAR that politicians and advocates have backed for years: Toss the rules that earmark a third of money spent on preventing transmission for abstinence programs. The report also takes PEPFAR to task for requiring that the FDA approve generic drugs already approved by global authorities. Though the FDA has approved many generics, critics argue that buying name-brand drugs at name-brand prices drastically cuts the number of people PEPFAR can treat.
Watch the IOM news conference.
News coverage: John Donnelly in the Boston Globe | The Washington Post | The New York Times
Conveniently, last week Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democratic leader on AIDS issues, reintroduced her bill to strike the abstinence earmark. The idea will probably be rolled into the PEPFAR reauthorization that Congress must get to later this year.
IOM, a branch of the National Academies of Science, keeps archives of its meetings, including agendas and presentations from many of the officials who testified. I attended one back in 2005 and was surprised at the force behind some of the questions, and the candor in some of the responses.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at April 1, 2007 10:49 PM