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“ADAP Watch,” National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors: The report found that as of May 20, 2009, there were 99 people on AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waiting lists in Indiana, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming — 37 more people than the previous ADAP Watch report, published in March 2009. The report also found that 11 ADAPs anticipate implementing new cost-containment measures by the end of March 2010, six of which anticipate implementing a waiting list. In addition, the report identifies factors contributing to the need for cost-containment measures, and discusses how state budget deficits are affecting HIV programs, including ADAPs (”ADAP Watch,” NASTAD, 6/4).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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Health care supplier Johnson & Johnson will focus on new treatments and improved tests for cancer and other diseases for which company perceives unmet needs, like BusinessWeek reports.

Even as several major products have been waiting for Food and Drug Administration ’s approval, analysts say the company has been making strides in its own clinical trials, according to Business Week. “In keeping with the Obama administration’s priorities for health-care reform, research directors for several disease areas at J&J said their teams have been doing larger patient studies of experimental drugs that compare them to widely used treatments rather than placebos, a new trend called comparative effectiveness research. And J&J is doing more studies seeking “hard endpoints” — for example, how many heart attacks or strokes are prevented by a drug, rather than improvements in cholesterol or blood sugar.”

“Patients and payers increasingly demand such information,” BusinessWeek reports, and analysts add that providing it will allow J&J to corner an instant market for the products when new treatments do gain FDA approval (Johnson, 6/4).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi within the next two weeks is expected to launch a plan to address mother-to-child HIV transmission in an effort to reduce infant mortality in the country, The Times reports. The MTCT plan is part of a new health program adopted by President Jacob Zuma’s administration, according to The Times.

“This is one of the most urgent things I want to (deal with) as the new minister,” Motsoaledi said. According to Motsoaledi, a child dies every eight minutes in South Africa, and about 40% of child deaths are related to HIV/AIDS. The plan was developed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa at a July meeting of government and health sector stakeholders. Participants at the meeting also examined maternal deaths and the decrease in life expectancy among young adults because of HIV/AIDS. According to Motsoaledi, these and other issues have been identified as priorities for the Zuma administration if South Africa is to meet targets in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They also have been consolidated into a 10-point plan to help the Department of Health focus on urgent issues through 2015.

“Health and education are the biggest challenges for (the government) and we ought to be doing something drastic,” Motsoaledi said, adding, “These are very serious issues in society.” The health department’s plan also calls for the revival of the National AIDS Council and says that the government should improve regulation of the private health sector. It also calls for the establishment of a national tuberculosis reference laboratory, a focus on infection rates among women ages 17 to 21 and the improvement of HIV prevention among commercial sex workers (Molele, The Times, 5/25).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.