The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) on Friday approved a new drug to treat HIV infection. The drug, made by
an arm of Johnson & Johnson, will be sold under the name Edurant, and is
designed to be used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs in
HIV-positive adults who have not received any prior treatment or therapy.
Once-a-day Edurant, or rilpivirine,
is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, which blocks replication
of HIV and lowers the level of the virus in patients' blood. It was approved by
the government based on the results of clinical
trials that involved more than 1,300 adults with HIV.
In the trials, patients were given
either rilpivirine or efavirenz (Sustiva) — an older FDA-approved drug — in
combination with other antiretroviral drugs, a treatment approach known as
highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART.
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