Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

Thirty years of HIV.

Today I wear a red ribbon for HIV. I wear it with reflection, empathy, understanding, and a desire to do more.

For the early sufferers who spoke up and brought awareness to a disease in the midst of stigma, hatred and misunderstanding. I wear it to honor people like Elizabeth Glaser, Joey DiPaolo, and Ryan White. I wear it to honor their bravery, compassion, and dedication to addressing the issue, speaking up for what is right, and holding true to their beliefs.

For those who bring awareness, support, and information to the communities impacted with HIV every single day. I wear it to honor these individuals – doctors, nurses, case managers, AIDS support groups, peer educators, and counselors. I wear it to honor their passion and dedication to making a difference.

Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

What an exciting time to be working in HIV. After 30 years, the scientific community has deciphered the mechanism of viral replication, resulting in multiple drug classes targeting multiple points of replication. On the patient/provider level, therapies have evolved to meet market needs – efficacious drugs with improved tolerability and convenient dosing.

This disease state has grown and changed at unprecedented speed – shifting what was once a death sentence into a chronic, more manageable condition.

Recently, there have been some interesting new discoveries that could impact and shape the future of HIV medicine. Discoveries that intrigue, surprise, and potentially shift the future of HIV care.

Glowing Cats and HIV – Don’t let the whimsical (maybe a bit spooky) photo fool you. This is real science. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic conducted a gene-therapy based study that looked at the impact of inserting genes that are known for blocking FIV cell infection into feline eggs prior to sperm fertilization. A jellyfish gene was also inserted, to allow for tracking purposes, which caused the cats to glow green. The genes disable the virus’s outer shield during entry into the cell, thereby not allowing the virus to begin replication that occurs within the cell. The impact of this genetic defense approach will likely have applications for advancing future genetic therapies for people and cats alike with HIV/AIDS.

Cholesterol and HIV – An international team of immunologists published findings that could have implications on future vaccine development. Researchers found that removing the cholesterol contained in the viral envelope of the HIV molecule interfered with the way that the virus attempts to reprogram the body’s immune response to the infection.

Gaming and HIV – Fresh from the “complex problems are solved in creative ways” files, gamers have solved one of the many mysteries of HIV that have plagued the scientific sector for years. Foldit, a game developed by researchers at the University of Washington, is designed to help solve complex scientific problems through competitive games. In three weeks, gamers were able to create models that allowed for successful molecular replacement and subsequent structure determination of the protease enzyme. This information will be critical to informing new drug discovery and development efforts. However, maybe even more promising is that this game has been used to solve problems in other disease categories – namely cancer and alzheimer’s research.

The possibilities appear to be endless when you take the best of technology and combine it with human intuition. I, for one, can’t wait to see what comes next.

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From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

I often look to Fast Company for inspiration. I was introduced to it by my first real boss (“real” meaning my first advertising job). And I haven’t stopped reading since.

Fast Company is all about innovation and unexpected discoveries. Never have I been more awe-inspired, than in reading about IBM’s World Community Grid (WCG) project. Utilizing idle time at an individual’s computer, the WCG utilizes the machine’s central processing unit to do calculations for various research sites. This analysis is then fed back to the individual sites. Seems like a simple process, but I have to admit, I don’t have the computer science intellect to really understand how it works.

While I will never understand the software and management of this program, the potential benefits in helping research labs find cures and treatments for some of the world’s most serious illnesses is incredible. This platform is being used to assist cancer, HIV, and muscular dystrophy research centers. It’s even running algorithms to help solve world hunger!

This platform has the ability to revolutionize medical research as we know it. By reducing research times from decades to a few years, the potential impact on our communities is impressive. But what may be most impressive of all, is the ability of the average citizen to give back to medical research so easily – as one campus marketing campaign slogan captured “When doing nothing is doing something.”

And if it helps find more medications to treat HIV? I’m in.

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

I recently stumbled across a blog post about HIV in America, thanks to my good friend Twitter, who never ceases to open my eyes to newsworthy items every day.

The point is simple – HIV is still a major issue in America. Many of us believe that what was once a death sentence is now a chronic condition. Yes, the medications have side effects, and living with HIV is not easy, but the drugs exist to help people live longer, healthier lives with HIV. The danger we face in acknowledging our progress in this disease state is developing apathy for the disease itself.

Jose Antonio Vargas makes a compelling point – AIDS must be part of our national consciousness. As a society we can fund better prevention programs, we can better educate on the risks, we can hope for better therapies – but until it is a part of our national consciousness and, I’d argue, part of our personal consciousness, the epidemic will continue to spiral out of control.

Check out the post, and more importantly, take 3 minutes to view the trailer for a new 90-minute documentary that will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival next week. I sent the trailer to a colleague of mine who had worked in the HIV category with me for years. We were both overwhelmed and impressed with the clarity and focus it brings to this ongoing issue. And while neither of us is lucky enough to be attending the Tribeca Film Festival, we are anxiously anticipating a DVD release or perhaps will be lucky enough to find a screening in a nearby theater following the festival.

If nothing else, it’s brought the reality of HIV and those at risk for it back into my stream of conscious thought.

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

Today was a great day with women all over the US rocking the red pumps. While I love red pumps, I especially loved them on this day: they served as a symbol for HIV education and awareness through social media. You couldn’t miss it – between the Rock the Red Pump^TM widgets on blogs, to the #rocktheredpump hash tag, to the retweets and news releases, people were talking about HIV today – specifically its impact on women and girls.

Did you know?

-       Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States

-       Every 9 ½ minutes, someone in the US is infected with HIV

Shocking statistics? I hope so. Because as newer meds become available, and people are living healthier, longer lives with HIV, apathy is growing. HIV has become a disease you live with, not a death sentence.  People think “It won’t happen to me,” yet HIV does not discriminate.

When you look at the impact of HIV/AIDS today, the challenge feels insurmountable:

-       1 million people in the US are living with HIV

-       1 out of every 5 people living with HIV do not know they are HIV positive

-       More than 14,000 people with AIDS die every year

So, what do we do? We prevent HIV. We spread the word. We develop advocates, arm ambassadors with information, we educate and drive awareness.

The two campaigns below are utilizing social media to drive the conversation about HIV and AIDS and create a tribe of people who are willing to carry the educational messages.

The Red Pump Project

iKnow

Check them out! And, if you believe in the cause, become an ambassador and retweet!

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

It’s no secret here at the Agency that I love working in HIV. Prior to working at Palio I had no experience in HIV. To say that working with the HIV community ignites a passion that you never knew existed within you would be an understatement. Working with the HIV community was eye-opening, personally fulfilling, and completely rewarding.

We’ve come a long way – both medically and socially. As a pointed reminder of how things have changed, I watched the movie Philadelphia last night. It wasn’t my first time watching the movie, but it still moved me. If you want to understand just how far we’ve come, check out the Kaiser Family Foundation Web site, which includes reports and timelines on every aspect of HIV/AIDS, including media coverage, disease state information, and events that have occurred since the start of the epidemic in 1981.

I go there frequently, and find much of the information to be heartbreaking and much of it to be awe-inspiring. That’s the thing about this disease state. It’s charged with emotion and wrought with stigma, but on the flip side, has created a community that is awe-inspiring.  We participated as a team in the local AIDSWalk for a few consecutive years. We worked with AIDS Service Organizations and HIV positive patients for photoshoots and educational initiatives. And the experience as a whole was incredible.

From a clinical standpoint, we are far from solving this issue. I was disappointed this week with the announcement of the failure of viciviroc to meet its primary efficacy endpoints in two pivotal phase III trials in treatment-experienced patients.

I had been extremely excited about the development of CCR5 inhibitors. Blocking entry of the virus into a human cell seemed to have great potential and was a great differentiator from the current products, who worked once the virus was in the cell replicating. If I was in a room and someone mentioned CCR5 vs. CXCR4 tropism, I could feel my hands begin to sweat. The science was that exciting. The possibilities seemed endless. And every breakthrough in this category seems to lead to another. While the drug will continue to be studied in treatment naïve patients, not being able to offer it as an option for those patients who really need it – patients for whom treatment options are limited due to resistant virus – is disappointing.

This is not the first CCR5 inhibitor to disappoint. GlaxoSmithKline had a CCR5 in development, aplaviroc, that looked promising due to limited toxicities and viral load reductions in short-term monotherapy studies. In the phase 2b studies, however, severe hepatotoxicity was identified. In the end, the drug never made it to market.

The CCR5 class is not completely lost. Pfizer’s CCR5 product, Selzentry, is on the market and in clinical use. Coreceptor tropism assays allow physicians to prescreen patients for CCR5 tropism, ensuring the right patients get the drug. And as the clinical usage increases, we’ll begin to truly understand the utility of this class. Current DHHS guidelines classify CCR5-Antagonist-based regimens as “may be acceptable but more definitive data are needed.” I would agree with their evaluation, and can’t wait for the “definitive data” to help us better understand this product.

2009 was not a banner year for HIV drug development. From mixed reviews on the HIV vaccine trial results, to products not making it to market, to limited HIV product pipelines, we are far from a cure. On the flip side, we have to count the little victories, and remember that with each new product that becomes available, we are advancing the science of HIV medicine and getting one step closer.