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The first of a promising new class of HIV drugs with few reported side-effects has been approved for Australian access though the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The drug, raltegravir – an integrase inhibitor marketed as Isentress – is currently available only to people whose HIV has grown resistant to all other existing therapies (SX #345).
“These are the people who have been excellent patients and have done what was recommended, but they have suffered because we didn’t have the right drugs,” Professor David Cooper, director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, told SX.
“This new drug and some of the other drugs have been an amazing change for these people. It works by blocking an enzyme that allows the virus to enter into the human genetic material and stay there forever.”
Cooper said the drug’s manufacturer, Merck, was sponsoring a study to see if people starting anti-HIV treatments would also benefit from the new drug.
“If that looks good compared to the bog standard treatments, there will be wider access, but that’s still a year or two away,” he said.
Trials of the drug had shown “remarkably few side-effects”, Cooper added.
“Most people – and we have 100 to 200 at St Vincent’s – don’t seem to know they’re taking it. Compared to protease inhibitors, which can cause a range of gastro-intestinal problems and induce nausea, they are extremely well tolerated, and nausea is one of the main reasons some people don’t stick to the treatments.”
The 450 Australians already obtaining the drug free of charge through an expanded access program will be able to access it through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from August 1.
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