Rapid HIV Test Could Use a Push
If you could go to an HIV testing site — say, your friendly neighborhood clinic — and get a test with immediate results, would you be more likely to seek out HIV testing? Studies say most people, especially young people, would. Unfortunately, because of patent disputes and profit angles, that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
Perhaps 300,000 HIV-positive individuals in the U.S. do not know their status. Unaware, they aren’t getting the care available and typically aren’t practicing safe behaviors, either. The inability to get a prompt test result is a major barrier to finding out. Even when people do go get tested, roughly a third — 2 million people annually — don’t return for the results.
The situation turns on patents and HIV strains. The feds have said that rapid tests should show both HIV-1 and HIV-2, although HIV-2 is almost unheard of in the U.S. However, Bio-Rad, which owns the U.S. patent to HIV-2, makes the present slow lab-based HIV-1 test, as do Abbott, Chiron, and Johnson & Johnson. They’re all making serious profits on the slow test, so to avoid rocking the boat, Bio-Rad won’t license the HIV-2 rights to others. In Europe and elsewhere not subject to Bio-Rad’s patents, rapid testing is readily available, and cheap.
The (relatively) short-term solution in the U.S. is for the CDC to give thumbs-up to an HIV-1-only rapid test, over which Bio-Rad has no control. That would break the log-jam. You, the citizen, can help: telephone or write (e-mails don’t get much attention) to your congressional representative and senator. Congress needs to press the CDC to push for bringing rapid HIV tests to market. Let’s reduce the devastating flood of HIV by helping folks identify their HIV infection.
This article appears in April 19 • 2002.