Despite a statewide waiting list of more than 1,400 newly diagnosed HIV and AIDS patients who need antiretroviral drugs but can't pay for them, a robust response from big pharmaceutical companies so far is filling most of the crucial need, state health officials say.

``I'm not shy about criticizing pharmaceutical companies. But I have to say they have helped us respond to this crisis so we don't have lapses in drug treatment,'' said Thomas Liberti, chief of the Bureau of HIV/AIDS in the Florida Department of Health.

It could have been tragic, Liberti said. A $1 million state funding cut last year to Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) coincided with a ``perfect storm'' of new patients needing drugs to stay alive, he said.

In May, the state had to stop enrollment to its ADAP program, which at the time was providing free drugs to more than 11,000 HIV and AIDS patients.

By early September, the waiting list of new patients needing help recently had grown to 1,411 in Florida, including 325 in Miami-Dade County, 267 in Broward, 91 in Palm Beach and 3 in Monroe, Liberti said.

The need for free drugs rose for several reasons, he said. Florida's unemployment rate soared to 12.3 percent, with millions losing jobs and health insurance; HIV patients treated with powerful antiretroviral drugs were living longer, and staying on ADAP's rolls; statewide AIDS programs expanded testing from 375,000 people in 2008 to to 395,000 in 2009; and new federal health standards mandated treating patients at lower viral loads, requiring more medications.

At the same time, the Florida Legislature cut ADAP's funding by $1 million to $10.5 million.

In April, the Fair Pricing Coalition, a nationwide coalition of 226 AIDS-fighting groups from the Miami-Dade Health Department to the Metropolitan Church in Topeka, Kan., sent an open letter to the country's big pharmaceutical companies. It pleaded for free drugs and easier application procedures to the firms' existing Patient Assistance Programs, or PAP, which provide free drugs to those who can't afford them.

More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies responded, including Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda, Gilead, Roche and others, Liberti said.

``[The companies] have been very flexible and cooperative,'' Liberti said, adding that the companies' help so far has amounted to nearly $15 million.

But there have been glitches.

``I know people on the waiting list who have not gotten the drugs they need or their drugs are coming to an end,'' said Charles Martin, director of the South Beach AIDS Project. ``If they don't have the initiative to keep going [to obtain assistance], they can fall through the cracks.''

And Dr. Michael Kolber, director of the Comprehensive AIDS Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said some patients run out of drugs while applying for the patient assistance programs.

Early this month, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a $25 million emergency appropriation for AIDS drugs for the country, giving Florida $6.9 million.

``That's great,'' Liberti said. ``But [the $6.9 million] amounts to three weeks worth of medications'' for those on the waiting list.

Liberti hopes the situation will improve next year, if unemployment wanes and Congress increases a planned $50 million AIDS drug package to $100 million as proposed.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/23/1837820/aids-hiv-patients-getting-help.html#ixzz10MUg03pY

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