New AIDS Drug Approved
pluto
When Combined With Other HIV Medicines, Merck's Isentress May Help Immune Cells
Rebound
Comment On This Post
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new AIDS drug was approved Friday, Oct. 13, 2007, offering a new option for
hard-to-treat patients. (CBS/AP)
Related
Photo Essay
Elton John's Enduring Vision
The Elton John AIDS Foundation throws it's sixth annual benefit called an
"Enduring Vision" in New York City.
Stories
Nelson Mandela To Host 5th AIDs Concert
(AP) The government approved a novel anti-AIDS pill on Friday, offering a new
option for hard-to-treat patients.
Manufacturer Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J., said Isentress should be
on pharmacy shelves within two weeks.
The AIDS virus uses three different enzymes to reproduce and infect cells.
Numerous drugs are available that target two of those enzymes, called protease
and reverse transcriptase.
Isentress is the first in a new class of medicines that blocks the third enzyme,
called integrase. Added to "cocktails" of other HIV medicines, the drug can
lower the amount of HIV in the blood and help infection-fighting immune cells
rebound.
HIV mutates rapidly to resist various treatments, and the Food and Drug
Administration approved use of Isentress in patients over age 16 whose blood
tests show they are resistant to common older medications.
Side effects include diarrhea, nausea, headache and itching.
Patients take Isentress, also known as raltegravir, twice a day. A Merck
spokeswoman said the drug would cost $27 a day, or $9,855 a year - in the range
of other competitors.
It is the second novel HIV drug to win FDA approval in two months. Pfizer Inc.'s
Selzentry works by yet another method, blocking a passage that HIV often uses to
enter white blood cells.
============================================================
>>[IN REPLYING/DETERING TROLLS PLEASE DELETE THIS CROSSPOST]
============================================================