The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) announced last week that the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs Crisis Task Force (ACTF) has negotiated new drug pricing agreements with Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare.

The agreements extend price freezes and provide lower drug prices to struggling AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) nationwide.

Additionally, Gilead has agreed to provide assistance to more people through its own patient assistance program and eliminate certain out-of-pocket expenses for patients with private insurance.

“We remain focused on developing solutions that ensure that individuals living with HIV, regardless of where they live or their income level, have access to our therapies,” said Kevin Young, Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations for Gilead in a press release.

ADAPs are programs that provide antiretroviral medications to low-income individuals living with HIV. Due to the economic recession and increased HIV testing measures, ADAPs are facing major budget problems and cutbacks nationwide (see related AIDS Beacon news).

According to the NASTAD press release, as of May 20, there were 1,143 individuals in ten states on waiting lists for ADAPs, a more than ten-fold increase compared to May 2009.

NASTAD announced June 2 that it had reached an agreement with ViiV Healthcare, a company established by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer that specializes in HIV/AIDS medications, to provide discounts to ADAPs on some of ViiV Healthcare’s most widely-used drugs.

Antiretrovirals made by Viiv include Combivir (zidovudine/lamivudine), Epivir (lamivudine), Epzicom (abacavir/lamivudine), Lexiva (fosamprenavir), Rescriptor (delavirdine), zidovudine (Retrovir), Selzentry (maraviroc), Trizivir (zidovudine/lamivudine/abacavir), Viracept (nelfinavir), and Ziagen (abacavir).

“We are committed to doing all that we can to ensure that the needs of HIV patients are met,” said Bill Collier, Head of North America for Viiv Healthcare in a press release.

NASTAD also announced June 4 that Gilead Sciences has agreed to implement several measures to reduce costs to ADAP programs and people living with HIV.

The first initiative includes new discounts to ADAPs for the Gilead antiretrovirals Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir), Viread (tenofovir) and Emtriva (emtricitabine) through December 31, 2013.

Other cost-saving measures include extended availability of Gilead’s patient assistance program to people with incomes up to five times the federal poverty level of $22,000 per year; removal of a $50 minimum payment by patients with private insurance in Gilead’s co-payment assistance program; and support for a universal patient assistance application that would be accepted by multiple pharmaceutical companies.

ACTF had previously worked out similar price-freeze and discount agreements with Abbott Laboratories, Merck, and Tibotec Therapeutics. Negotiations are ongoing with Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Genentech.

Despite the agreements, NASTAD continues to push for more government assistance to help keep ADAP programs running.

“As ACTF, community groups, and industry have come together to address the current crisis in ADAPs, we ask that individuals concerned about issues of access to life saving medicines for persons with HIV contact their legislators to voice support for an emergency appropriation to close the funding gap for ADAPs around the country,” said Julie Scofield, Executive Director of NASTAD in the June 2 press release.

NASTAD is pushing for an extra $126 million in funding to cover ADAP funding gaps and eliminate waiting lists.

For more information, please see the press releases for agreements with ViiV Healthcare (pdf) and Gilead Sciences (pdf) on the NASTAD website.