BMS Co-Pay Assist Program Update

Today I’ll review the BMS Co-Pay Assist Program which will save you money on Atripla, Reyataz, and Sustiva copays. In fact, the BMS program covers up to the first $400 per monthly co-pay for a year for each of these three medications. Sweet!

Copay cards can reduce or eliminate your monthly co-pays for HIV medication. Please note that they do not work if you are on Medicare, Medicaid, Medigap, VA, DOD, or TriCare.

You can get a BMS Co-Pay Assist Program card from your HIV provider or HIV specialty pharmacy, or you can enroll by phone.  Here’s the link to learn more:  http://www.bms3assist.com/copay/

If you use mail order, check with your mail order pharmacy to see if they accept the cards. If they do not, you can pay for it, save your receipts, and send them to BMS for reimbursement.

What has been your experience, good or bad, using these card programs?

What a Year it has Been! Completing my Fellowship with the Black AIDS Institute

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, so my apologies if you’ve been looking for regular updates from me.  I finished up a huge commitment in February.  I graduated from the African American HIV University Community Mobilization College (AAHU CMC) at the Black AIDS Institute.  This was an eleven month program that taught me skills on assessing HIV in my community, conducting a needs assessment, and forming a coalition of Black leaders to address the disproportionate rate of HIV in Blacks in Minneapolis.  We then planned and conducted a mobilization event to increase awareness of HIV, provide HIV testing, and educate about HIV in the Black community.  The event was a blast, and that will be a topic of a future post.

Blacks are  the race or ethnic group most impacted by HIV in the United States is Blacks.  Black make up 12% of the population, yet account for nearly half of new infections.

We seem the same disturbing trend in Minneapolis, where I live.  Blacks make up only 19% of the population, yet account for 40% of new HIV infections. 

I chose to target Black men who have sex with men BMSM) , including gay and bisexual men for my mobilziation.  This group accounts for most of the new infections in Blacks in Minneapolis.   Although they represent less than 1% of the US population, BMSM account for 28% of all new HIV infections.  Most alarming, this rate of infection for BMSM in the US is comparable to the rate found in sub-Saharan African countries.

HIV is a preventable problem.  Yet we have new infections occurring every day in the US, and communities of color are most vulnerable.  Clearly, we can do better. 

In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be writing more about my experiences with the Black AIDS Institute and the AAHU CMC.  It was an incredible experience, and I want to share the information I learned with you.

Yours,

Bill

New One Pill Option for HIV Stribild-How Does it Compare to Reyataz?

This week I’m writing about Stribild, a new one pill per day treatment for HIV that contains four medications.

One of the questions on everyone’s mind is, “Does it work as well as the other medications?  Is it better?”

Yesterday I compared Stribild to Atripla.  Today I’m comparing Stribild to a Reyatza regimen that included Norvir and Truvada, a common regimen for HIV.  Reyataz and Norvir with Truvada is also a preferred treatment according to DHHS recommendations.

The other one pill per day treatment for HIV is Complera.  I have blogged about Complera previously.

In another study presented at CROI in 2012, a big US conference on HIV and related infections, Edwin DeJesus and colleagues compared Stribild to Reyataz/Norvir plus Truvada.  The study enrolled 708 participants.

Both Reyataz and Stribild performed equally well through 48 weeks.  The conclusion of the study was that Stribild demonstrated non-inferior efficacy to Reyataz, meaning it worked as well as Reyataz.   Both regimens were generally safe and well-tolerated, with similar proportions discontinuing due to adverse effects.

More people on Reyataz developed elevated bilirubin, but this is a recognized side effect of Reyataz that is considered harmless.

So compared to a Reyataz-containing regimen, Stribild worked as well with similar adverse effects, and is very well tolerated.  The main advantage would be one tablet daily with Stribild compared to three tablets daily for the Reyataz, Norvir, and Truvada regimen.

So if you were on a Reyataz-containing regimen, would you switch to one pill Stribild?

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some precautions to consider before you start Stribild.

Yours,

Bill