FDA’s approval of Truvada, a once-a-day oral combination of
tenofovir and emtricitabine, for pre-exposure prophylaxis (or
PrEP, a method for preventing HIV infection) arrived during a
chorus of optimism surrounding major developments in the fight
against AIDS. At conferences in the UK and the US last month,
the possibility and even likelihood of an AIDs-free generation
in our lifetime graced the lips of innumerable activists,
academics and government officials including Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and NIH director Francis Collins. “I honestly
believe,” rock star Sir Elton John told an audience at the
International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, “that before I
die, I will more or less be seeing the remains, the last
remaining people infected with AIDS.” Much of this optimism is a
result of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) – an
international collaborative clinical trials network – and the
findings from its key study, HPTN-052. That study was halted
last April after demonstrating that HIV-infec