Schinazi went to boarding school in England where he completed his early education, before being admitted as an undergraduate at the University of Bath in 1968.
In 1976, he moved to Yale University's department of pharmacology and trained as a postdoctoral fellow with William Prusoff.
[5] Schinazi is currently the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology,[5] and co-director of the HIV Cure Scientific Working Group within the NIH-sponsored Emory University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)[6] in Atlanta, Georgia.
[15] This drug became one of the most successful antiviral agents used to combat HIV as part of fixed-dose combinations (including Combivir, Trizivir, Epzicom, and Triumeq).
Disruption of this process results in rapid reduction of systemic viral loads to undetectable in HIV-infected individuals, effectively allowing for significant rebound of CD4+ T-cells, effectively providing a tandem mechanism resulting in control of systemic viremia and restoration of functional immunity.
In addition, FTC in combination with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Truvada) was approved as a prophylactic drug (part of PrEP) to prevent transmission of HIV, further broadening its use beyond HIV-positive people to that of prophylaxis, underscoring a novel and previously unmet need with ramifications for global health worldwide.
[31] Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, a principal founder of Idenix and a co-founder of Pharmasset, is a former business partner who no longer speaks to Schinazi.
[34] Even accepting that Idenix discovered a component of the compound, the cure for HCV was discovered only after Pharmasset/Gilead's ”revolutionary refinement of that invention.”[35] Patent law, according to the order, reflects a balance between protection “and the importance of facilitating the imitation and refinement through imitation that are necessary to invention itself and the very lifeblood of a competitive economy.”[36] In 2014, Schinazi, working with the Egyptian government and Gilead Sciences, agreed to provide Egypt with the drug Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) for about US$1,000, which is only one percent of its market price.
In Egypt, there is currently a total of around 12 million Egyptians infected with hepatitis C.[2] Schinazi has also had a hand in the development of the other FDA-approved drugs stavudine and telbivudine.
[31] In 2018, Schinazi received the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, the French Legion of Honor, with the rank of knight.
[37] Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it is the highest decoration bestowed in France and recognizes outstanding service to the French Republic.