New drugs approved for AIDS treatment

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New drugs approved for AIDS treatment

FDA approves anti-AIDS pill from Merck

Fri Oct 12, 5:26 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The government approved a novel anti-AIDS pill on

Friday, offering a new option for hard-to-treat patients.

Manufacturer Merck & Co. 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.

http://news./s/ap/20071012/ap_on_he_me/hiv_drug_2;_ylt=Ava_bd

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