Martin Delaney, the founder and longtime director of the HIV advocacy and education organization Project Inform, and long-time contributor to The Advocate, died Friday of liver cancer at his home in San Rafael, Calif. He was 63.In 1985, Delaney founded Project Inform, a national HIV treatment and public policy information and advocacy organization based in San Francisco, serving as its director until 2008. Delaney was involved in the development of today's widely used Accelerated Approval regulations and the Parallel Track system for providing experimental drugs to seriously ill people prior to formal Food and Drug Administration approval.
Delaney recently received the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director's Special Recognition Award for his achievements in the field of AIDS. Upon receiving the award, NIAID director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, released the following statement: “Millions of people are now receiving life-saving antiretroviral medications from a treatment pipeline that Marty Delaney played a key role in opening and expanding. Without his tireless work and vision, many more people would have perished from HIV/AIDS. He is a formidable activist and a dear friend. It is without hyperbole that I call Marty Delaney a public health hero.”
In a statement, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said, “Martin Delaney was one of the pioneers of AIDS activism. While not HIV-positive himself, Delaney dedicated much of his life to shaping our nation’s public policy on HIV/AIDS legislation and worked on the local level to promote education and a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS issues. He worked with the drive and hope to one day find a cure for HIV/AIDS, and while it did not happen in his lifetime, we’ll continue the important work of lobbying Congress for additional HIV/AIDS funding to find a cure.”
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