Delaney encouraged the FDA to use a fast-track review procedure for AIDS drugs, reasoning that dying patients could not afford to wait for the results of meticulous and lengthy research.
[3][4][5] Delaney, through Project Inform, facilitated the unofficial testing of potential AIDS medications in the days before a wide variety of antiviral drugs were available to the public.
With a lengthy drug approval process and what activists felt was a plodding pace of regulatory agencies, promising new antiviral agents could take many years to reach market.
When drugs were unavailable, or when people did not respond to existing medications, some with AIDS relied on untested substances in attempts to cure or alleviate their symptoms.
Shortly before Delaney's death from complications of liver cancer, his achievements were honoured by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).