MANAGED CARE May 2005. ©MediMedia USA
The AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) has become a critical source of prescription drugs for low-income people with HIV/AIDS who have no or limited prescription drug coverage. There are 57 ADAPs, yet nearly 30 percent do not include coverage of all FDA-approved antiretroviral (ARV) therapies on their formularies, and South Dakota does not provide any protease inhibitor (PI) coverage at all, according to the annual report of the National ADAP Monitoring Project.
Forty-two ADAPs cover enfuvirtide (Fuzeon), a recently approved fusion inhibitor. Fuzeon interferes with the entry of HIV-1 into cells by inhibiting the fusion of viral and cellular membranes. This is up from 33 ADAPs reported last year. ADAPs in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming do not extend formulary coverage to enfuvirtide.
State ADAP formulary coverage of approved antiretroviral drugs under the AIDS Drug Assistance Program
Note: 2004 data; no information for American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
NRTI: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor
NNRTI: non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor
Source: National ADAP Monitoring Project. Annual Report.