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"Three-in-one HIV cocktail"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(14/07/06)
WASHINGTON: People infected with the virus that causes AIDS will soon be
able to take a once-a-day pill that combines three drugs in a “cocktail”
therapy that can be swallowed in a single dose.
The pill, called Atripla, includes three US Food and Drug
Administration-approved medicines that already form one of the most widely
prescribed treatments for HIV and AIDS. The FDA approved the combination
version on Wednesday.
The medicine will still be expensive: more than US$1,100 (RM4,070) for a
month's supply.
Atripla can replace the two or more pills HIV-positive patients now must
take each day to keep the virus in check, making it simpler to stick to a
treatment regimen.
If the single pill does help patients stick to their pill-taking regimen,
that in turn could slow the emergence – and ultimately, transmission – of
drug-resistant strains of the virus. Those strains can evolve when patients
take less than 95% of their pills, said John Martin, head of Gilead Sciences
Inc, the manufacturer of two of the drugs in Atripla.
“The fewer pills, the better they are able to achieve that 95% threshold,”
Martin said.
Atripla will not do away with the multiple other drugs that AIDS patients
often must take to fend off infections and other complications of their
weakened immune systems, said Frank Oldham Jr, executive director of the
National Association of People with AIDS. And some patients will have to
take other HIV drugs along with Atripla to combat the virus effectively.
Interest in Atripla as the first once-daily, three-drug pill may be greatest
in developing countries, for both medical and logistical reasons, said Dr
Murray Lumpkin, deputy commissioner for international and special programmes
at the FDA.
“The idea of having a fixed-dose combination has been, as you might say, one
of the holy grails,” Dr Lumpkin said.
About 40 million people worldwide are HIV positive. Each year, roughly three
million die from AIDS, according to the World Health Organisation. — AP
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