NIH-Funded Study Finds Daily Dose of Antiretroviral Drug Reduces Risk of HIV

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Today, the New England Journal of Medicine published research findings from the iPrEx study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation testing the efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The study is a major step forward in our ability to prevent new HIV infections. The study found that a daily dose of an oral antiretroviral drug taken by HIV-negative gay and bisexual men and transgender women reduced the risk of acquiring HIV infection by 43.8 percent. The data showed even higher levels of protection from infection, up to 73 percent, among those participants who adhered most closely to the daily drug regimen.

This study is the first of its kind and we will need to validate these findings with other research, much of which is currently underway. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, such as whether this approach is effective in other populations. We also need to examine whether PrEP works effectively with other antiretroviral medications. There are also critical questions about when and for how long individuals need to take these medications and how to combine PrEP with other prevention tools to achieve maximum results. We also need to better understand how to exploit the promise of PrEP without sending signals that lead individuals to stop using condoms or taking other steps that may increase their risk of becoming infected with HIV.

Today, however, is a day to rejoice in these exciting results. What is particularly encouraging for many people is that this study was proven effective in gay and bisexual men - the group responsible for more than half of all new HIV infections in the United States and the only group where HIV incidence has been rising in recent years. We all hope that this will be shown to work for heterosexuals, people who inject drugs, and others. These results also compliment the promising study results announced at the International AIDS Conference in July from the CAPRISA study that demonstrated the efficacy of one of the two drugs used in the iPrEx study (tenofovir) when used as a vaginal microbicide. The findings from these two studies showing that antiretroviral therapy can prevent infection in HIV negative individuals is particularly encouraging given the President’s goal of lowering the annual number of new infections by 25% over the next five years. Although no single HIV prevention strategy is 100 percent effective, today’s findings suggests that antiretroviral medication may play an important role in developing the most effective combination of approaches to prevent HIV.

In commenting today on these promising results, President Obama said the following,

I am encouraged by this announcement of groundbreaking research on HIV prevention. While more work is needed, these kinds of studies could mark the beginning of a new era in HIV prevention. As this research continues, the importance of using proven HIV prevention methods cannot be overstated.

Moving Ideas from the Lab to the Marketplace

Posted by White House

Ed. Note: This week the Obama Administration celebrating America’s entrepreneurs and small businesses as part of National Entrepreneurship Week. Join Commerce Secretary Gary Locke this Friday at 1 p.m. for a live chat on entrepreneurship and innovation on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

Innovation always has and always will be America’s global competitive advantage. Our ability to create products and services that help people around the world live healthier, wealthier and more productive lives was a big reason why the 20^th century was the American century.

Innovation is how we built the strongest middle class the world had ever seen. And it’s a big part of how we’re going to rebuild the American middle class here in the 21^st-century.

It begins with a commitment to research and development. The president’s proposed 2011 budget, while freezing domestic discretionary spending overall, includes a six percent increase for R&D, with special attention given to emerging sectors like 21st century infrastructure and manufacturing, clean energy and biotechnology.

But R&D is only the first step in the innovation process. The next step is to find an entrepreneur to take that kernel of an idea or invention and turn it into a new product or a new business.

At the Commerce Department, I’ve set up a National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship made up of leading American innovators and entrepreneurs to help the federal government formulate policies that makes it easier for us to “move ideas from the lab to the marketplace”.

One such program is the inaugural i6 Challenge, a $12 million innovation competition administered by Commerce’s Economic Development Administration in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The i6 Challenge identifies and provides support for the nation’s best ideas for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in six different regions of the country.

In the Philadelphia Region, this included a partnership between Innovation Works, Inc. and Carnegie Mellon University, which will create the “Agile Innovation System,” to accelerate the commercialization of technologies being developed within the region’s universities and small businesses.

In the Pacific Nothwest, Seattle Region, The Oregon Translational Research & Drug Development Institute, the Oregon Nanoscience & Microtechnologies Institute, and the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center are joining forces to create the first comprehensive, innovation infrastructure – the Oregon Innovation Cluster. This will ensure that good ideas don’t get lost in the dreaded “valley of death,” where promising inventions fail to make it into the marketplace because they can’t get funding or aren’t being commercialized by a qualified entrepreneur.

Through an effort led by the Small Business Administration, we are also reinventing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, one of largest federal innovation programs, to encourage entrepreneurship. The program has provided early funding to technology companies such as Qualcomm, Semantech, and Genentech – and among other things, it is focused on using small businesses to meet federal research and development needs, enhancing private-sector commercialization of innovation, and increasing women and minority participation in technological innovation.

These programs have different goals and different methods, but they are all fundamentally working towards the same thing. As President Obama has said we are striving for a future “where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation and fleeing profit; but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in technologies, innovations and discoveries that will shape the 21st century.”