HIV+ people ! Boehringer Ingelheim is working for you !

Today thousands of HIV positive individuals are failing all available HIV treatments. They are in an urgent need for new treatment options.

Boehringer Ingelheim has developed a new protease inhibitor (PI), tipranavir/r which can potentially benefit HIV+ people in need of salvage therapy.

In September 2003, after months of pressure by HIV/AIDS NGOs, Boehringer Ingelheim has finally opened a worldwide compassionate access programme with only 600 treatments available monthly until mid-2004.

This so-called access programme is a true insult thrown in the faces of HIV + people and will in no way cover the needs of the thousands of patients waiting for tipranavir/r.

Furthermore, for this compassionate access programme Boehringer Ingelheim is forbidding the concomitant use of another protease inhibitor with tipranavir/r in the salvage regimens. This arbitrary decision goes against the latest scientific evidence that has shown that the combination of tipranavir/r with another PI is more potent than the use of tipranavir/r alone (the independent committee of the Boehringer Ingelheim 1182.51 trial recommended in July 2003 that the arm with tipranavir/r as the only PI be terminated and all patients be switched to a combination of tipranavir/r + another PI)

EATG and TRT-5 demand that :
– Boehringer Ingelheim’s compassionate access programme be large enough to respond to the needs of the thousands of patients with no other treatment options
– Boehringer Ingelheim respects the recommendation of the 1182.51 trial independent committee

Boehringer Ingelheim is digging the graves of very sick HIV+ patients who could benefit from a new treatment.