Whistleblowers Claim $100 Million fraudulent conduct made by AIDS Healthcare Foundation

How will Michael Weinstein spin this?

Three former managers at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Inc. (AHF) have come forward alleging the organization has been defrauding federal healthcare programs for the past five years, raking in as much as $100 million in the process.

AHS is a global nonprofit based in Los Angeles and the largest provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the U.S., with over 350,000 patients. At least, according to its website. That number, it has now been alleged, may be greatly inflated.

In a lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on April 3, whistleblowers Jack Carrel, Mauricio Ferrer, and Shawn Loftis, all of whom held management positions with AHF before being fired from their jobs after questioning the organization’s referral practices, claim AHF boosted funding from federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Health and Human Services HIV/AIDS grant programs, by offering illegal kickbacks of $100 to employees who created false HIV/AIDS referrals, and $50 to patients who patronized its clinics and pharmacies.

AHF Advocacy Against Gilead’s Truvada as HIV Prevention Yields Stronger FDA Drug Warning Label

 by AHF ⋅ in Healthcare, Press Release 

New warning label is welcomed by AIDS advocates who were astounded by recommendation by an FDA Advisory Panel earlier this year to allow Gilead to market use of its blockbuster AIDS treatment as a form of HIV prevention in uninfected individuals without any HIV testing requirement whatsoever

AHF and other advocates strenuously opposed use of the AIDS treatment as a form of HIV prevention pill, concerned about efficacy, medication adherence issues among uninfected high-risk populations; ‘Black box warning’ label on Truvada for prevention now recommends HIV testing every three months

HIV pill for prevention debated as FDA ruling nears

By Deena Beasley www.reuters.com

An advocacy group concerned about costs and possible health problems related to a drug being considered to help stop the spread of HIV infection to healthy people has asked U.S. regulators to delay or deny its approval.

Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration on the grounds that studies have shown that the pill, Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences, is only partially effective in preventing transmission. The drug is already approved to treat people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

Is an “HIV Prevention Pill” Worth It? - AHF SPEAK OUT

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) have expressed interest in establishing guidelines for the use of PrEP. Under the current regulations, a medical provider is allowed to prescribe ART to a HIV negative person. This is called ‘off-label use’ – use of an HIV/AIDS medication for purposes other than treatment of HIV— effectively constitutes PrEP. However, as long as PrEP is not officially sanctioned by the FDA, drug companies cannot market ARTs as a preventative measure to the public. If PrEP is eventually approved by the FDA, pharmaceutical companies stand to make a lot of money catering to a new market in the developed world instead of providing cheaper—and much needed—drugs in the developing world.

AHF Slams Gilead HIV Prevention Pill FDA Appplication

Despite failed results from numerous clinical trials of Gilead’s HIV/AIDS drug Truvada as an HIV prevention pill (pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP), the drug company recently submitted an application to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of this new use of the drug

AHF questions the lack of transparency in the FDA’s process after the government agency repeatedly denied its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for correspondence between the FDA and Gilead over Truvada
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 16, 2011)⎯AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today slammed drug company Gilead Sciences Inc. for submitting an application to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a new use of its HIV treatment drug Truvada as an “HIV prevention pill” – also known as a pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP. Despite numerous failed clinical trials, the company went ahead with its application. AHF also questions the lack of transparency of the FDA’s application process after the Foundation’s repeated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for correspondence between the FDA and Gilead over Truvada were denied.

AHF Survey Of Gays Raises Questions About Gilead's Truvada For HIV Prevention

AHF's survey, which was presented yesterday as part of an HIV PrEP Symposium at UCLA, raises questions about the use of Truvada as an HIV prevention pill-or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The online focus group was designed to determine "real world" reactions from prospective consumers about taking PrEP and to gain further information about potential adherence issues and the pill's possible impact on condom use.


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Let's poison a few more people? 


January 03, 2011 12:29 PM Eastern Time 

AHF Will Supply $1 Million in Free AIDS Drugs to Florida Wait List Patients

AHF Pharmacy Will Supply $1 Million in Free AIDS Drugs to Patients on the Waiting List for Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program—and to those 350 ADAP Patients the State Will Disenroll from its ADAP program. AHF Pharmacy will Supply at No Cost a Five-Day Supply of Lifesaving HIV Drugs for Patients until they Enroll In and Receive Refills from Private Drug Company Patient Assistance Programs

2,396 People—More than Half of the 4,543 Currently on ADAP Waiting Lists Nationwide—are in Florida, Which also Has the Third Highest HIV Population in the Nation

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the State of Florida grapples with a budget shortfall that has crippled its AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and forced the state to potentially disenroll 350 Florida patients already on ADAP as well as place nearly 2,400 low-income Floridians on waiting lists to access lifesaving medications, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has proposed an innovative plan to help state health officials and displaced HIV/AIDS patients bridge the transition to private patient assistance programs run by the major pharmaceutical companies. AHF, through its AHF Pharmacy, will supply up to $1 million in free AIDS drugs to those disenrolled and wait listed HIV/AIDS patients on medication therapy as those patients wait for their medications to be delivered from private patient assistance programs. This will avoid any interruption in lifesaving medication therapy while patients transition onto patient assistance programs.

“Through AHF’s offer to fill prescriptions for medications to bridge supply gaps for any displaced Florida ADAP patients, we hope to help ease the state’s AIDS drug crisis and get vulnerable Florida AIDS patients off waiting lists and back on to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment”

“Through AHF’s offer to fill prescriptions for medications to bridge supply gaps for any displaced Florida ADAP patients, we hope to help ease the state’s AIDS drug crisis and get vulnerable Florida AIDS patients off waiting lists and back on to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “We have initially proposed offering five-day supplies of medications to patients, which should be ample time for private drug companies to confirm patient eligibility for their respective patient assistance programs, or time enough to spur greater efficiency among those drug companies whose enrollment protocols may be unnecessarily cumbersome.”