He nearly died in the process and was left with lasting complications. His hematologist, Gero H ütter, MD…had the idea to use stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation known as CCR5-delta32 that blocks HIV from entering cells.īrown underwent intensive chemotherapy and radiation to kill off his cancerous immune cells. He was on antiretroviral treatment with well-controlled HIV when he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2006, which would require two bone marrow transplants. In Brown’s obituary, POZ summed up Brown’s path to an HIV cure:Īn avid traveler, Brown was living in Berlin when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. It seems, however, that the treatment is modeled after the stem cell transplant that cured Timothy Ray Brown, aka “the Berlin Patient” -albeit without wiping out the immune system as was necessary in his case.īrown, who died in 2020 after a recurrence of leukemia, was the first person ever cured of HIV. As he says in the film: “Gathering information for these people is my small way of, hopefully, finding a cure.”ĭetails of the cure experiment-for example, which specific drugs and regimens were used and who is conducting the experiment-are not revealed during the film. Drew, a long-term survivor, clarified that his goal was to participate in a greater cause, to help HIV researchers attain data that, even if they don’t benefit him personally, may one day be useful in developing a cure for others. “The possibility of curing myself of HIV was never my intention going into this,” Drew told The Queer Review in an interview before the film’s August 2021 debut at Outfest, an LGBTQ film festival in Los Angeles (you can watch the interview below). (You can watch the trailer at the top of this article.) Although Right to Try runs less than half an hour, its subject leaves a lasting impression as well as raises a number of questions. Diagnosed with HIV in 1987, Drew stopped taking his lifesaving meds nearly two years ago to start an experimental treatment to cure HIV.ĭirected by Zeb Newman and produced by Octavia Spencer, the film is available for free on the Peacock app and at. If you need a break from year-end gatherings and anxiety-inducing headlines (and who doesn’t?), here’s an inspiring diversion: the documentary short Right to Try, about Jeffrey Drew.
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