ADAP Drug-Assistance Programs -- Funding Projections for 1998

On April 17 the ADAP Working Group -- a coalition of advocacy organizations and pharmaceutical companies involved in AIDS treatment -- presented to Congress the results of a pharmacoeconomic model showing how much it would cost to provide triple combination treatment including protease inhibitors to uninsured or underinsured patients likely to seek this treatment in fiscal year 1998 (the year which begins October 1, 1997). Additional funding of $131.7 million will be required, bringing the total to $554 million.

Gary Rose of the AIDS Action Council called the funding "a sound public health investment that will save patient lives, bring many individuals with HIV and AIDS back into the workforce and dramatically reduce the costs associated with hospital and hospice care and of providing specialist treatment for a wide range of opportunistic infections and AIDS-related cancers, whose incidence has fallen dramatically over the 15 months since combination therapy with protease inhibitors has been widely adopted in medical practice." Modern antiretroviral treatment has repeatedly been shown to be cost effective, often saving more than drug costs by avoiding hospitalization and other treatment for opportunistic infections.

A new Federal standard, expected to be published in May in the MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is expected to define as standard of care that anyone with HIV who has a CD4 count less than 500 and a viral load greater than 10,000 should consider aggressive treatment with triple combination therapy.

The projection of future funding requirements took into account the growth in use of state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, and likely changes in future prescribing practices.