Promising new HIV-AIDS drug, 1st in new class, approved for Canadian market

From Canada East:
Health Canada has granted licence approval for a new HIV-AIDS drug, the first in a promising new class of medications.

Drug maker Merck Frosst says it has been given permission to bring Isentress to the Canadian market for treatment of HIV-positive people whose viruses are resistant to multiple other HIV drugs. AIDS expert Dr. Mark Wainberg says there is tremendous optimism about the drug in the community of HIV patients, doctors and researchers.

The drug's generic name is raltegravir.

It is the first in a new class of drugs known as integrase inhibitors to hit the global AIDS drug market; another drug, eltegravir, is in development by Gilead Sciences Inc. of Foster City, CA. ...more

Merck's Drug for AIDS Virus Faces Review in September

It should be interesting to see how the FDA handles the application of this fantastic new antiviral drug. Some of the reports regarding this drug have been extremely promising.

It's my understanding that Health Canada is trying to speed up the review on this product as well.

From Bloomberg:
Merck & Co.'s experimental HIV/AIDS treatment will be scrutinized by a panel of U.S. regulatory advisers on Sept. 5.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland, will review Merck's application to sell the drug, called Isentress, according to a notice posted today on the agency's Web site. The twice-a-day tablets are intended for patients with the human immunodeficiency virus who don't respond to existing antiretroviral therapy.

Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, is competing with Pfizer Inc. to develop the first new type of medicine in a decade to treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Thousands of Americans have drug-resistant forms of the infection and could benefit from new therapies, according to doctors. ...more