Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press (12.20.04) - Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Linda A. Johnson
The best current AIDS treatment requires patients to take two to four pills a day. Earlier HIV drug regimens were vastly more complex, requiring patients to take 25 to 30 pills daily under specific conditions. Missing doses introduced the possibility of mutated, drug-resistant HIV.
The component drugs are already on the market, so a once-daily combination could be approved and marketed by the second half of 2006, said David Rosen, a BMS spokesperson.
"It's the first time ever that two companies with competing products have worked together," said Dr. Michael Saag, director of the AIDS Center at the University of Alabama- Birmingham. "This is something patient advocates and a lot of physicians have been pushing for over a decade."
"To have it all in a single pill is terrific," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci said such partnerships are key, adding that the agency hopes "it's the beginning of future collaborations."
Given that individual AIDS drugs and drug cocktails eventually stop working, all the major AIDS drug producers except Merck & Co. have been working on combination pills, said independent pharmaceutical analyst Hemant Shah of HKS & Co.
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