In the hunt for a remedy, when the baton is passed from dedicated academic scientists to an innovative company to trusted community advocates, outcomes for society can be especially powerful. Today, thanks to that sequence of contributions, the first HIV drug to offer long-lasting protection from infection—eliminating the need for people to take a daily pill—exists. For their role in ensuring that drug, lenacapavir, came to life and to market, the AAAS Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award is being awarded to Wesley Sundquist, chair of the University of Utah Department of Biochemistry; Moupali Das, vice president, clinical development, HIV prevention and pediatrics, at Gilead Sciences; and Yvette Raphael, cofounder and executive director of Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS in Africa.
“These individuals represent the three arms of what is necessary to create new science and then translate it for the world in a way that is really able to make a difference,” said Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health and part of the committee—convened by Science journals’ Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp—that selected the winners.
“I was excited about how these three tell the story of the journey required to bring a drug into existence,” said committee member William Powderly, codirector of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington University School of Medicine. “It takes multiple people, skillsets, and partners.”
Read the full story at Science.
Source : Science
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