TAG at 10: The Year 1995

Jan. 4:

Memorial service for writer and ACT UP member David Feinberg.

Jan. 8: TAG board decides to bring on Michael Marco and Spencer Cox full-time beginning in April 1995.

Jan. 11: Activist and film-maker Steve Brown dies of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

Jan. 14: Activist Lee Schy dies of vancomycin-resistant staphylococcis sepsis.

Jan. 29: To D.C. for first meeting of OAR AIDS Research Evaluation Subcommittee (the "Levine Committee").

Feb. 8: Mepron (atovaquone) approved for mild to moderate PCP.

Feb. 10: Disappointing meeting with Merck on expanded access for indinavir (Crixivan).

Feb. 21: Michael Marco elected to ACTG Executive Committee.

Feb. 23: Gregg Gonsalves, Spencer Cox, Peter Staley to D.C. for National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development meeting on protease inhibitors. Publish Problems With Protease Inhibitor Development Plans.

April: Completion of Michael Marco's The Lymphoma Project Report.

May 13: Memorial service for poet James Merrill, NYC.

June: FDA approves expanded access for Roche's saquinavir (Invirase).

June 5: Mark delivers keynote talk at NCI KS meeting on "Kaposi's sarcoma and the changing face of AIDS activism."

June 6: Michael Marco's plenary on "Do we have a standard-of-care for KS? or, The incredible shrinking ABV response rate."

July 5: Gregg's cousin Carl Parisi dies of aspergillosis and lymphoma.

July 12: Office of AIDS Research (OAR) budget crisis.

July 20: House Appropriations NIH markup. OAR budget line eliminated.

Aug. 18: Spencer Cox finishes FDA Regulation of Anti-HIV Drugs: A Critical Review.

Sep. 1: FDA approves compassionate use for cidofovir (Vistide) for relapsing cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis.

Sep. 18: 37th ICAAC, San Francisco. Release of final results of ACTG 175, showing that ddI monotherapy, AZT/ddI and AZT/ddC combination therapy are each superior to AZT monotherapy in treatment-naive individuals. The first study proving the benefit of two-drug combination therapy will rapidly be eclipsed by the development of triple-combination highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), as hinted at in an Abbott late-breaker showing that the combination of its protease inhibitor ritonavir plus two reverse transcriptase inhibitors can drive HIV RNA down to "undetectable" levels.

Oct. 3: O.J. Simpson "not guilty" verdict.

Oct. 8: Work on TAG Does ICAAC. FDA approves clarithromycin (Biaxin) for mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) prevention.

Oct. 16: National AIDS Treatment Advocates Forum (NATAF), Los Angeles. All TAG staff attend.

Oct. 19: OAR Advisory Committee holds first formal meeting to review progress on the Levine Committee report.

Oct. 24: Meeting at Roche on saquinavir.

Oct. 27: FDA approves oral ganciclovir (Cytovene) for CMV prophylaxis.

Nov. 6: FDA hearing on 3TC. FDA Antiviral Committee votes for a broad indication: "for use in combination with AZT."

Nov. 7: FDA hearing on saquinavir, which is recommended for approval in combination but not as monotherapy.

Nov. 8: FDA hearing on full approval for d4T. Green light given even though trial was too small to show statistical significance.

Nov. 14: Newt Gingrich-induced government shutdown.

Nov. 17: FDA approves doxorubicin HCL liposome injection (Doxil) for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS).

Nov. 20: FDA approves 3TC (Epivir) for use in combination with AZT.

Dec. 6: FDA approves saquinavir (Invirase), the first protease inhibitor.

Dec. 21: FDA grants full approval for d4T (Zerit, stavudine).