New AIDS Drugs

According to Avert, an international AIDS charity, more than half a million people with AIDS have died in the United States. Since 1989, there have been at least 39,000 new AIDS diagnoses each year. Prevalence of the disease peaked in the United States in 1993, then showed a decline. The most dramatic drops in both cases and deaths began in 1996, with the widespread use of the combination antiretroviral therapy, or “drug cocktails.” While almost one million people have been diagnosed with AIDS, only an estimated 550,394 have died. The number of deaths among people with AIDS has remained stable since 1999. The drug cocktails have contributed significantly to this, but now, two new drug innovations could be the next big things in HIV and AIDS treatment. If they are as affective as researchers hope, those rates will not only remain stable -- they’ll go down.

NEW WEAPONS: The introduction of the drug cocktails made a major impact on the number of deaths from AIDS. Researchers hope two new classes of HIV and AIDS drugs could be the new "drug cocktails" of the 21st century. There are nearly 30 drugs in four different classes. The four existing classes of HIV and AIDS antiretroviral drugs each targeting the HIV virus in one of four different ways. With the introduction of two new drugs -- each representing a new class of HIV and AIDS drugs -- there will be a total of six different classes of drugs available. Doctors say the drugs should be used in combination with existing drugs to combat the disease in multiple ways.

ISENTRESS (raltegravir), manufactured by Merck, is the first medicine to be approved in the new integrase inhibitors class of antiretroviral drugs. ISENTRESS works by inhibiting the insertion of HIV DNA into human DNA by the integrase enzyme. Doing so limits the ability of the virus to replicate and infect new cells. There are drugs in use that inhibit two other enzymes critical to the HIV replication process, but ISENTRESS is the only drug that inhibits the integrase enzyme.

SELZENTRY (maraviroc), manufactured by Pfizer, is the first approved medicine in the CCR5 antagonists, which block the CCR5 co-receptor -- the virus' predominant entry route into T-cells. HIV enters cells in the blood by attaching itself to structures on the surface of the cell called receptors. SELZENTRY blocks a specific receptor called CCR5 that CCR5-tropic HIV-1 uses to enter T-cells in your blood.

Neither drug reduces the risk of transmitting HIV to others. HIV is spread through sexual contact, sharing needles or being exposed to an infected person's blood. Manufacturers caution the drugs will not cure HIV infection, but may slow the progression.

These medicines will likely be available first at AIDS-Drugs-Online.com