AIDS Research Alliance of America (ARAA) is a national community-based non-profit medical research institution that seeks to develop a cure for HIV/AIDS, medical strategies to prevent new HIV infections and better treatments for people living with HIV/AIDS[1]. Since 1989, ARAA has conducted over 90 clinical and pre-clinical studies,[2] ranging from alternative therapies[3][4][5] that employ a complementary approach to HIV care to the first in-human HIV vaccine trial.[6]
In 1989, a group of Southern California physicians and philanthropists, led by Paul Joseph Rothman, M.D. and Matthew Rushton, Hollywood film producer of “Mrs. Doubtfire,” founded Search Alliance to speed the discovery and development of effective treatments against HIV and its complications.[7]
Working with physicians who were experimenting with various treatment approaches in their private practices, the group pooled data and identified promising experimental regimens. The staff designed the studies, coordinated the data collection of Alliance physicians, and analyzed and published the results.[8]
In 1995, Search Alliance changed its name to AIDS Research Alliance of America and centralized all clinical research activities in one licensed clinical facility based in Los Angeles.[9] This allowed ARAA to identify and manage scientific, clinical and organizational strategies with a staff of dedicated research professionals, while maintaining affiliations with physicians, academics and scientists at a global network of research institutions.[10][11][12][13][14]
In 2009, ARAA relocated from West Hollywood, where it had been located for 14 years, to a larger research facility in downtown Los Angeles.[15]
As a community-based organization, ARAA serves as a bridge between community trials and government funded research. It collaborates with government-sponsored researchers and pharmaceutical companies, but also advocates for and conducts AIDS research that is not driven by the demand for profitability.[16] ARAA has been licensed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a drug to combat HIV.[17] Carolyn H. Carlburg, J.D. is the current Chief Executive Officer[18][19] and Stephen J. Brown, M.D. is the current Medical Director.[20]
Today, AIDS Research Alliance of America focuses its research and development program on several core areas, by identifying and developing anti-HIV drugs that inhibit the virus in novel ways and developing new medical strategies – like microbicides and vaccines – that prevent the spread of HIV.[21] ARAA conducts clinical trials aimed at treating the medical disorders that accompany HIV, including HIV-associated lipodystrophy,[22] diarrhea and neuropathy.[23] Developing strategies that will eliminate HIV viral reservoirs has become a major research initiative of ARAA.[24] This includes its work on prostratin,[25] a potential reservoir ablative agent that ARAA has in-licensed from NIH.[26] In 2008, ARAA filed a new patent on prostratin and its analogues, thus broadening its research platform targeting the HIV reservoirs.[27]
AIDS Research Alliance of America funds its research by using a business model that includes contract research conducted for major pharmaceutical sponsors,[28][29][30][31] as well as tax-deductible donations from private individuals, corporations and foundations. Major funders to ARAA include The Ahmanson Foundation, The MacDonald Family Foundation, The Richard Gere Foundation,[32] and MacHeist[33] among many others.[34] ARAA is a participating charity in the U.S. Combined Federal Campaign,[35] and has received high ratings from charity watchdog groups such as the American Institute of Philanthropy[36] and Charity Navigator[37]. ARAA hosts a number of fundraising events – including ArtSeen featuring A Taste of Los Angeles and has been a beneficiary of events like Macy’s Passport In-Store, Spinning Nation and the Game Show Congress.
^Broad-Spectrum Micronutrient Supplementation in HIV-infected Patients With Dideoxynucleoside-related Peripheral Neuropathy: A Prospective, Double-Blind, Placebo Controlled Trial, J Kaiser, J Ondercin, G Santos, G Leoung, S Brown, M Mass, M Baum; 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, San Francisco, February 8-11, 2004 [abstract 494]. www.retroconference.org/2004/cd/PDFs/494.pdf
^Dual Role of Prostratin in Inhibition of Infection and Reactivation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus from Latency in Primary Blood Lymphocytes and Lymphoid Tissue. Biancotto A, Grivel J, Gondois-Rey F, Bettendroffer L, Brown S et al; Journal of Virology, October 2004, p. 10507-10515, Vol. 78, No. 19
^Safety, pharmacokinetics, and antiviral activity of AMD3100, a selective CXCR4 receptor inhibitor, in HIV-1 infection. AMD3100 HIV Study Group, Hendrix C, Collier A, Lederman M, Schols D, Pollard R and Brown S et al, Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes 2004, vol. 37, no2, pp. 1253-1262
