AIDS Vaccine

March 27, 2013, Hyderabad, India –The Texas Biomedical Research Institute has applied for a U.S. patent for a once-in-a life time HIV vaccine designed to stop transmission of the virus during sex. It’s not an AIDS cure but the next best thing, since 90% of HIV infection cases occur during intercourse, when the virus passes through the body’s epithelial cells. 

In January, according to the San Antonio Express– News, Researchers will begin inoculating Rhesus monkeys at the Institute with various dosages of the vaccine at the vagina, rectum, mouth or skin-monitoring their immune response and then infecting them with different HIV strains to test their ability to protect against infection. “By about 2015 we should know if the works, or if it was just a great dream,” said Claire Gauduim, a Researchers in Texas Biomed’s department of virology and immunology who invented the vaccine along with Philippe Blancou of France’s University of Nice–Sophia Antipolis.

Costlier Generics, Too

Generic drug makers will be subject this year to new fees enacted as part of the Generic Drug user Fee Amendments of 2012 (GDUFA), part of the FOOD and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act enacted in July by President Obama. Companies will have to pay for applications, as well as Drug Master files (DMFs) that will cost than as much as $20,000 to $30,000 each.

While FDA said, that fees will amount to less than 10 cents for the average generic prescription, PCI synthesis said in its predictions for 2013 that extra costs “could have an adverse effect on the generic drug industry,” especially smaller companies “could”? More like “will” and you can bet generic drug makers “will” try to recoupe that cost with higher prices. So much for generics as the low-cost alternative to brand-name drugs.