Josh Bloom, Ph.D. - American Council on Science and Health

How the <strong>Ph</strong>armeceutical Industry Tamed HIV
Introduction
Rock Hudson, Arthur Ashe, Ryan White, Liberace,
Alvin Ailey, Freddie Mercury, Anthony Perkins,
Rudolf Nureyev. Remember when you could
hardly go a month without hearing about someone famous
dying of AIDS? And The New York Times obituary page
was filled with thirty-ish men, often in the arts, who had
died “after a short illness.” When is the last time you heard
this? Probably about fifteen years ago. So what happened?
The pharmaceutical industry is what happened.
Using state-of-the-art techniques in drug design, virology
and biotechnology, the industry delivered a revolutionary
series of novel therapies in an exceptionally short period of
time. This campaign is arguably among the most impressive
in medical history in its scope, scientific sophistication
and outcome, yet is largely taken for granted—when it is
noted at all. The highlights of this effort are outlined in
the following review.
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