Companies Agree to Continue HIV Drug Safety Studies

Pharmaceutical companies have agreed to continue studies for at least another year to assess whether HIV medicines increase the risk of heart disease and other complications, an AIDS specialist said Monday. Last month during an HIV congress in Glasgow, HIV/AIDS groups voiced concerns that manufacturers would stop funding studies into the side effects of highly active antiretroviral treatment before the extent of any increased risk could be determined. The European AIDS Treatment Group also expressed its worries to the Steering Committee on the Metabolic Complications of HAART, which includes company representatives as well as researchers and regulators. "I think we can confidently say now that we have funding agreed for a further year from all the companies involved and for a second year from most," said British committee member Professor Ian Weller, of University College-London. The studies of metabolic complications were launched in 1999 at the request of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency. AIDS activists say patients may have to be followed for decades to obtain definitive answers about the long- term risks of therapy.

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