READ MORE HERE:

http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/hiv_pap_copayment_2042_16390.shtml

FPC Patient co-pay information
FPC co-pay program chart

AIDS Action Baltimore is a prominent member of the Fair Pricing Coalition (FPC). The FPC, which was founded by the late Martin Delaney, is a national coalition of activists who work on HIV drug pricing issues and who help control drug costs, thereby insuring access for recipients of state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as those who are privately insured, underinsured and uninsured.

The FPC has been negotiating with all major HIV drug manufacturers to require them to institute patient co-pay programs. These new co-pay programs are a direct result of several years of intense work and negotiations between the FPC and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry.

Most, if not all, HIV pharmaceutical companies already provide some level of patient assistance to individuals who are unable to afford their HIV medications. Be sure to ask your health care provider or pharmacy to contact the manufacturer directly for updated details on a specific drug.

Most HIV drug companies have also recently instituted co-pay assistance programs, which may cover all or part of the drug co-pay for many privately-insured patients, up to a specified amount, and for a pre-determined period of time, for example, up to one year. Certain restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. For example Medicare and Medicaid patients are not eligible. Eligibility requirements may vary from program to program. Once eligibility is established, most companies will provide patients with a co-pay card which they can bring to your pharmacist or provide to your mail-order pharmacy when filling your prescription.

Jeff Berry, Editor of Positively Aware and member of the FPC states “In our current economic crisis and with the continued rising costs associated with health care, these new programs offer much-needed assistance to people who may have insurance but are being adversely affected by rising co-pays and premiums.”

There are also many other medications in addition to HIV antiviral drugs needed by people with HIV, such as prescriptions for high cholesterol or diabetes. To find patient assistance or drug co-pay programs for these and other types of drugs, visit http://www.needymeds.com.

Below is a brief description of currently available HIV co-pay programs prepared by Jeff Berry, along with information regarding the recently announced BMS program, which is scheduled to launch later this year. The Kaletra program is scheduled to launch sometime in March.

Abbott: Positive Partnership PLUS Card—In 2009, Abbott is launching a pilot program which will expand to the Positive Partnership PLUS Card. Includes 12 months of co-pay savings and covers Kaletra plus other ARVs, no income or co-pay eligibility criteria. Patients can save up to $50 toward their Kaletra co-pay, plus up to $100 of the cost of other HIV medications (up to $50 for each additional ARV with a limit of $100 total—must be part of a Kaletra regimen.) Visit http://www.kaletra.com for more information.

Gilead: Truvada Co-pay Assistance Program—Covers Truvada, Emtriva, and Viread. For high co-pays only kicks in above $50 and up to $200/month. If health care provider does not have the card, you can call toll-free 1-888-358-0398 and it will be mailed to you. Atripla is currently not part of this program.

GSK: MySupportCard—Card is valid for the amount of your actual out-of-pocket cost up to a maximum of $100 for each prescription. All HIV drugs (Combivir, Epivir, Epzicom, Lexiva, Retrovir, Trizivir, and Ziagen) are covered. Go to http://www.mysupportcard.com for more information and to print out the card.

Tibotec: Tibotec Therapeutics Patient Savings Program—Covers Prezista and Intelence. Saves up to 80% of the amount of your actual out-of-pocket cost up to $100 per drug, per month. Visit http://www.prezista.com/prezista/patient_assistance.html or call toll-free 1-866-961-7169. BMS recently announced that they will be launching a co-pay program sometime during the first half of 2009 which will include Reyataz and Sustiva; details will be provided as they become available.

Merck does not have a specific insurance co-pay assistance program, however they do have a patient assistance program for Isentress and Crixivan called “Support.” Those needing co-pay assistance for Crixivan or Isentress should use the “Support” program.

Call 1-800-850-3430, or visit http://www.isentress.com, click on the site map, and then click “Support.” Pfizer does not offer co-pay assistance for HIV medications, however, they do provide reimbursement assistance, appeals assistance, and patient assistance for Selzentry, Viracept and Rescriptor, and also offer information on obtaining assistance with tropism testing. Call the Pfizer RSVP program at 1-888-327-RSVP (7787) M–F, 9:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Time; fax 1-888-773-0121, or write to Pfizer RSVP, PO Box 220574, Charlotte, NC. 28222-0574. For assistance with all other Pfizer medicines, call Pfizer Helpful Answers (PHA) at 1-866-706-2400, or visit http://www.pfizerhelpfulanswers.com.

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November, 2008

Dear Friends:

AIDS Action Baltimore (AAB) has been providing essential services to people with HIV/AIDS since 1986. We have advocated tirelessly both locally and nationally for treatment and services for people with HIV/AIDS. We are once again conducting our annual holiday direct mail appeal campaign. As we approach our 23rd year of service, we hope we can count on your continued support so that we can maintain our many HIV programs. Even with only two employees, our finances are stretched to the breaking point. Our grant money has been continually cut under the Bush Administration. We know this has been a tough economic year for you too, but we desperately need your help to continue to provide our many essential services to the Baltimore HIV/AIDS community. Although federal dollars are shrinking, the number of AIDS cases in Baltimore remains extremely high. The Baltimore metropolitan area has the 2nd highest rate of HIV transmission of all the cities in the nation, behind only Washington, D.C.

We firmly believe we must continue our many invaluable programs. AAB still provides financial assistance to needy people with HIV/AIDS. AAB has provided support to hundreds of people over the past year alone. Since 1986, we have provided over $2,223,000 in assistance to people with HIV/AIDS and their families in our community for items such as rent, utilities and prescription drugs. For many people, AAB is their last resort, the only place where they can receive the help they need to maintain a stable place to live and help with utility payments. This year, we thought you might again enjoy reading some of the grateful acknowledgments we have received from our clients. It is comments such as these that have helped us to persevere under the many undue hardships continually presented by the Bush Administration.

"Thank you is hardly adequate to express our heart-felt gratitude for your generous help with our BG&E bill. Without your help, we would have been unable to heat our home during the holidays. AIDS Action Baltimore continues to be the only organization that truly understands our needs and has continuously supported us in every aspect of our lives throughout our ongoing financial, emotional and medical strife."

“Thank you very much for helping me with my water bill. It was appreciated more than you will ever know. It is amazing how little things can get you down. Thank you for helping me lift my spirits.”

“There are no words to express the immense gratitude for helping me out. It lifted a huge weight off of me. I am not going to lose my house. I hope you will be blessed as much as your help blessed me.”

AAB is also working with activists across the country to force the pharmaceutical industry to price drugs more reasonably and not to continually raise the prices of HIV drugs. These battles are difficult and require constant vigilance. We have been able to force “Big Pharma” to supply AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP), including Maryland’s ADAP, with drugs at lower than market prices. We have recently taken the lead with the Fair Pricing Coalition, a national advocacy coalition, to demand that AIDS drug companies provide patients with copay assistance. While we now have life-saving anti-HIV drugs, the cost of these drugs is astronomical. AIDS Action Baltimore has been instrumental in brokering agreements in this regard with most of the major HIV drug makers. Many of the companies have agreed to reimburse patient copays from the first dollar of cost up to $100 for each HIV prescription. One company has agreed to cover out of pocket copay costs of over $50.00 up to $250.00 per prescription. We are very proud of our success in this arena. This type of cutting edge advocacy does not happen in any other disease area in the nation. GSKPressRelease.pdf

AAB continues to advocate with drug companies for expedited development and access to promising new HIV drugs. For example, drug companies must be continually prodded to provide adequate supplies of new drugs in expanded access programs before FDA approval for the patients who need these drugs the most. AAB was instrumental in convincing the maker of the life-saving new integrase inhibitor Isentress to initiate its early access program as soon as possible, making it available to some 5,000 patients in need of new therapy well before the drug was available in the market place. AAB continues to work with this company to design trials that will result in even safer and simpler drug regimes for people with HIV.

AAB also works with government, academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that real life strategies for the use of potent new anti-HIV therapies and their life-threatening side effects are studied before FDA approval. We have yet to develop strategies to follow patients on these powerful medications for side effects in the long-term. AAB was also a lead participant in another national coalition which helped to ensure the passage of the new FDA Drug Safety Bill. This new FDA legislation ushered in sweeping changes that require drug companies to provide long-term safety management plans before drug approval, allows the FDA to require drug companies to conduct post-approval trials and label changes, provides for civil monetary penalties for non-compliance, and also mandates that clinical trials information for open and closed clinical trials be available to the public online. AAB continues to work with the FDA to implement this legislation and to educate the community about the provisions of this legislation.

AAB has also taken a leadership role in attempting to reduce HIV transmission in Maryland, demanding that Maryland’s HIV testing laws be revised so that more people who want to be tested for HIV can obtain testing without the need for time-consuming bureaucratic paperwork. Under previous law, it took approximately 20 minutes to review the necessary paperwork with patients before HIV testing could occur. Most providers do not have 20 minutes to spend with a patient for their entire medical office visit. As a result, HIV testing was not always offered to patients, further fostering HIV transmission in Maryland, which has the third highest number of AIDS cases of all the states in the nation. AAB has continued to work with the Maryland AIDS Administration to formulate the detailed regulations that will ensure that more people are voluntarily tested for HIV.

AAB is committed to continuing our patient assistance and advocacy programs and to reducing HIV transmission in Maryland, to our research and drug pricing advocacy efforts, to moving the HIV drug pipeline along as quickly as possible, and to forcing drug companies to conduct the strategy trials that will ensure that we know how to use these drugs safely in the real world. We need to keep the pressure on constantly to win these battles and to continue to assist needy people with HIV/AIDS. We hope you will remember our fight and continue your loyal support. Your donation will continue to save lives. We cannot survive without your generous support which has sustained us since 1986. We know that things are tough for you too and that you are called upon to make many charitable contributions. Thank you in advance for helping us to survive another year and for your continued confidence in us. We are forever grateful for your trust and loyal support. Remember, now more than ever, without people like you, there would be no AIDS Action Baltimore.

Sincerely,

Lynda Dee & the Board & of AIDS Action Baltimore, Inc.

Michael Aquino
Thomas Holden
Merle McCann, M.D.
Gregory Baranoski
Roslynn Howard-Moss
William Smith
Jake Boone, III
Jeffrey Klug, LCPC
Cameron Wolf, Ph.D.