[QUOTE=Bighurt52235;55299889]
Quote:
Originally Posted by hobbes9324
Agreed the commercial is terrible, but how on earth could this remotely be true?
I reposted this, because I wanted to add some stuff and I got caught by the editing time limit.
Should have been clearer.
Truvada is a drug in search of a niche, and the % of people that NEED to be on it is low.
In the US, pretty much anyone can get their HIV meds, as long as they're willing to jump through the hoops. Truvada has an aggressive pharmaceutical program to get the med to people who can't afford it/don't have coverage. You do have the occasional psych patient/drug addict who is so alienated from the health care system that they aren't on meds, but other than that I can't remember the last time I saw an HIV patient who couldn't get their HIV medications. (I'm talking about the general drug regimen here, not some of the more esoteric stuff for people who have developed resistance)
Outside the US, another story, and especially in Africa it's apparently a total ****show - but they're not watching the dancing guy on TV, most likely - to be clear - this reflect my experience in a couple of urban areas - it may well be different in some rurals, or even other places - I just haven't seen anything in the journals I read or at conferences that I attend that indicate financial issues is a significant barrier for obtaining HIV meds - unlike so much else in the system. Additionally, Truvada is a controversial medication for a bunch of reasons. A fair number of gay activists argue that it encourages risky sex behaviors, as it seems to be pretty good at blocking transmission. Gilead has had (I think) difficulty figuring out exactly how they want to market the drug, because there are a number of other treatment protocols for people who have HIV, and they're a lot cheaper then Truvada - but they don't want to be viewed as a drug company encouraging HIV+ people to screw, I guess. I've viewed this from afar, as it's not a big part of my everyday practice (I probably see an HIV patient in the ED maybe once every couple of years with an HIV related problem - it's a hell of a lot more manageable than it was 20 years ago.
Like most of this stuff, it's complicated.
MM MD