42 U.S.C. § 300cc–3 — Establishment of Research Advisory Committee

(a) In general: After consulting the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, the Secretary, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, must set up an advisory committee inside that Institute. It's called the AIDS Research Advisory Committee, or just "the Committee." (b) Composition: The Committee must be made up of physicians whose own clinical practice includes a significant number of AIDS patients. (c) Duties: The Committee has four jobs. (1) It advises the Director of the Institute — and may also advise the directors of other NIH agencies — on what research should be done on clinical AIDS treatment. This includes advice on (A) research into drugs that prevent or reduce the symptoms of HIV infection, including recommendations on research to diagnose immune deficiency and to predict, diagnose, prevent, and treat opportunistic cancers and infections, and (B) research on how effective it is to treat those symptoms with drugs that (i) the FDA has not approved for that use, but that (ii) infected people are using anyway. (2)(A) It reviews ongoing AIDS clinical treatment research, both publicly and privately funded, including research on the drugs described in (1), and (B) it periodically publishes reports describing and evaluating that research, and makes them available to health care professionals. (3) It conducts studies and holds meetings to find out what practicing physicians recommend for treating AIDS clinically, including treatment with the drugs described in (1). (4) It conducts a study to build, among health care professionals, a shared understanding (a consensus) of the best clinical treatments for preventing or reducing the symptoms of HIV infection in infected individuals.