New weapon against Aids
Last updated: Monday, October 15, 2007 PrintThe US Food and Drug Administration cleared Isentress, a pill given twice a day and known generically as raltegravir. An FDA advisory panel had recommended approval of the drug in September.
It is the first in a new class of HIV treatments called integrase inhibitors that seek to block insertion of HIV genetic material into human DNA to prevent the creation of copies of the virus.
Seems very safe
"It seems very safe, compared to other agents. It is very potent in terms of HIV viral suppression," said Dr Homayoon Khanlou, the Aids Healthcare Foundation's Chief of Medicine who was involved in the clinical testing.
The drug was tested in patients who have become highly resistant to several marketed medicines for HIV. Resistance is a major problem as the HI-virus can mutate, especially in patients who fail to rigorously follow the often complicated drug regimes.
The drug-resistant patient population has the highest unmet medical need, according to Merck, which is also studying the drug in previously untreated patients.
Because of treatment advances, more people are living longer with HIV or Aids. In the United States alone in 2006, more than 1 million people were living with HIV or Aids. An estimated 40 000 new cases are expected this year, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. - (Kim Dixon, Reuters Health)
Read more:
HIV/Aids Centre
October 2007
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