Researchers making a real difference in the treatment of Aids

Dr Tom Harrison of the Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and his team, are dedicated to improving the outcome for AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis.  Most recently they have successfully lobbied Bristol Myers Squibb to reduce the price of amphotericin B, the key drug used to treat the infection in South Africa, from approximately 145 Rand (about £11.60) to 26 Rand (about £2.10) per vial,

Cryptococcal meningitis, caused by a form of yeast, causes between 13% and 44% of all deaths in HIV-infected patients in South Africa, and frequently leaves survivors blind. The most active single drug is amphotericin B but unfortunately in South Africa, a country with more than 5 million HIV-infected people, the cost has been between 3 and 4 times that in the UK, making it unaffordable for many hospitals.

Tihana Bicanic, a trainee in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at St George’s, won the British Infection Society Research Fellowship to enable her to work with Dr Harrison in South Africa. On planning visits to South Africa, she and Dr Harrison were surprised by the high cost of amphotericin B there. They enrolled the help of local collaborators, Professor Robin Wood and Dr Linda-Gail Bekker, from the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, and, through them, other interested parties, including The South African HIV Clinicians Association, and the Treatment Action Campaign and AIDS Law Project at the University of Witswatersrand. The latter approached BMS, who agreed to drastically lower the price. This reduction in cost of over 80% will have a dramatic effect on treatment in the country, enabling many more patients to receive the best treatment for their cryptococcal meningitis, which will allow them to go on to antiretroviral therapy for the underlying HIV infection.

Despite it’s importance, Dr Tom Harrison’s team at St George’s, is one of very few in the UK that is addressing the issue of cryptococcocal meningitis through clinical and laboratory studies both at St George’s, in Thailand and South Africa.