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http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Oct12/0,4670,HIVDrug,00.html
FDA Approves Anti-AIDS Pill From Merck
Friday, October 12, 2007
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 "****tails" 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.
FDA Approves Anti-AIDS Pill From Merck
Friday, October 12, 2007
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 "****tails" 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.
