January Z. 2005 * jlttt Mltj 15
rTíwrrmñews
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Health secretary nominee questionable; AIDS leader steps down;
RNC gets its first gay member by Bob Roehr
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he nomination of Michael Leavitt
to be the next health secretary is
making queer and AIDS advocates
apprehensive. It is primarily because
he is seen as a Bush loyalist without
much of a positive record on their issues.
As governor of Utah, Leavitt cut funding for
Medicaid and pushed for waivers that consoli
dated federal support into bloc grants. Medicaid
pays for a large share of the services for people
living with HIV. There is concern
'V.vw.li
that similar reorganization at the
national level might adversely
affect AIDS programs.
“His position on significant les
bian and gay issues calls into ques
tion his ability to fairly address the
health care concerns of lesbians,
gays, bisexuals and transgender
Americans,”
said
Kathleen
DeBold, executive director of the
Mautner Project, a national les
bian health organization.
Utahns don’t share those fears.
“Mike is not a right-wing conservative by any
stretch of the imagination; he’s a moderate
Republican,” Democratic state Rep. Jackie
Biskupski told The Washington Blade. She is the
first openly queer elected official in Utah.
Community advocates are urging the Senate
to closely question Leavitt on his ability to meet
the health needs of the sexual minorities com
munity. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is
likely to take rhe lead in those efforts because of
his seniority on the committee conducting the
confirmation hearing.
T
The clinic is one of the largest AIDS services
organizations in the country.
Baker’s annual contract was up, and he cited
personal reasons for not seeking its renewal. He
is HIV-positive and in gcxxl health, but his
T-cell count has declined from 450 to 10 during
the past year. He will take some personal time
before seeking less stressful work.
The past several years have been difficult
ones for AIDS services organizations as they face
declining private and govern
ment support while the caseload
continues to grow.
Baker previously served as
executive director of the Nation
al Association of People with
AIDS and in the office of AIDS
at the Department of Health and
Human Services under President
George H.W. Bush.
While at Whitman-Walker,
Baker played a leadership role in
the National Coalition for LGBT
Health and served on various
advisory committees to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
ob Kabel, 58, has been elected chairman of
the D.C. Republican Party, making him the
first openly gay or lesbian person to sit on the
165-member Republican National Committee.
The longtime political insider worked for
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-lnd., prior to a
three-year stint in the legislative liaison office of
the Reagan White House. Since then he as
worked as a lobbyist.
Kabel serves on the national board of Log
ornelius Baker is stepping down as execu Cabin Republicans, which he chaired for several
tive director of the Whitman-Walker Clin
years. He will step down from that board to
ic, a position he has held for the past five years.
devote his attention to the new position. in
B
C
H ard to S wallow
Drug trials scrutinize single daily pill for HIV
single pill once a day to treat HIV
is the goal set by two drug compa
nies that have agreed to collabo
rate. It may be on the market
within two years.
Bristol-Myers Squibb produces Sustiva, rec
ommended in most treatment guidelines as part
of a preferred initial therapy. It is in the class of
drugs known as non-nudeoside reverse tran
scriptase inhibitors.
Gilead Sciences produces Viread and Emtriva,
two popular and potent second-generation drugs
in the reverse transcriptase inhibitor class. They
also may be used as part of an initial regimen.
The combination of these three dnigs has
been used in thousands of patients with gcxxJ
results. However, a new round of trials will be
required to demonstrate that packing them all
into the same pill results in the same therapeu
tic effect with no additional side effects.
It is the first time two companies have
agreed to collaborate to produce a single anti
HIV pill that contains multiple drugs. Success
is not assured.
Several years ago Merck created Trizavir, a
combination of AZT, 3tc and abacavir—three
A
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S
a
by Bob Roehr
drugs in the reverse transcriptase inhibitor class.
It hoped that the single pill might become a
standard treatment.
But a clinical trial was stopped early in 2003
when it became apparent that Trizavir was not
as effective in controlling HIV as combining
drugs from two different classes. Trizavir is rec
ommended for use only in combination with
another class of anti-retroviral drug.
Kaletra is another possible single dnig ther
apy. It combines the protease inhibitor
lopinavir with a subtherapeutic dose of the pro
tease inhibitor ritonavir to keep it in the bkxxl-
stream longer.
A pilot trial at a Houston clinic has
demonstrated promising results, and the man
ufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, is backing full-
scale clinical trials of this use. Kaletra is
approved for use only in combination with
other drugs.
Some industry analysts see the Bristol-
Myers/Gilead alliance in developing their
combination single pill as a defensive move to
protect their market share against the ease of
use of Kaletra, should it be approved for single
drug use. JH
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