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| New AIDS drug Prezista performs 'very well' | | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI, Apr 5
The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has just received a report from Washington, which claims that the new AIDS drug, Prezista, performed 'very well' in halting the onslaught of the human immunodeficiency virus in people with advanced infection. The claim is contained in a study published on Wednesday, April 4.
The success of the drug, made by the Johnson & Johnson unit Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd., comes at a time of acute need for new AIDS therapies because many existing drugs are failing as HIV mutates to thwart them. It is in a class of drugs called 'protease inhibitors' that are designed to suppress HIV and prevent it from replicating. The researchers said that Prezista, also called darunavir, expands treatment options for patients who do not improve with other treatment.
While many AIDS drugs are available, experts say an alarming number of patients are becoming resistant to them because the virus can mutate quickly -- particularly if patients fail to meticulously follow their drug regimens -- rendering some drugs ineffective.
Dr. Rodger MacArthur of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, who wrote a Lancet commentary on the findings, has said that doctors treating AIDS patients will welcome the findings. He said patients have been given the drug at Detroit Medical Center.
"The patients who have gone on it have done remarkably well. It seems to be very safe. It seems very well tolerated", MacArthur hasd been quoted as saying in a media interview. "There really is nothing else in this class that is in development, or at least not that is close to entering clinical trials. So this is likely to be the last (new) protease inhibitor that we see for three to five years", MacArthur added.
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