Dr. William Haseltine receives the 2023 IHV Lifetime Achievement Award

ACCESS Health International Chair and CEO, Dr. William Haseltine recently received the 2023 Institute of Human Virology 25th Anniversary Lifetime Achievement Award for Scientific Contributions and Drug Development. Prior to founding ACCESS Health International. Dr. Haseltine helped create the biotechnology companies ProScript Inc. which developed a treatment for multiple myeloma and other cancers, and Dendreon which developed the first approved cell-based cancer therapy for treating metastatic prostate cancer. Haseltine co-founded Human Genome Sciences, which developed a number of drugs for treating diabetes and its complications, cancers, obesity, and anthrax.

After completing the sequence of the HIV genome, Dr. Haseltine’s laboratory then showed that damage to certain viral genes killed the virus, identifying good antiviral drugs. The first HIV-specific protease inhibitor, Nelfinavir, was developed as a part of a collaboration between the Haseltine laboratory, Cambridge BioSciences — another company founded by Dr. Haseltine —, and Agouron Pharmaceuticals. He founded additional biotechnology companies including The Virus Research Institute, LeukoSite, Diversa, X-VAX, and Demetrix.

Dr. Haseltine successfully advocated for Congress to HIV/AIDS research through the NIH. He publicly advocated for destigmatizing HIV infection. He played an important early role in creating the International Society for AIDS Research, now the International AIDS Society, and was the Founding Editor of the scientific journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Dr. Haseltine went on to co-found E-Biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine and The Society for Regenerative Medicine to help expand the field of regenerative medicine.