Patients who are running out of medicines to fight the AIDS virus won a new option Thursday, as the US government approved a dramatically different anti-HIV drug.
Manufacturers said it should be available this month, though a price of $ 20,000 a year would make it inaccessible to most.
Fuzeon is the first in a new class of medications, called fusion inhibitors that work by helping to block HIV from getting inside the immune-system cells that they ultimately kill.
Today’s AIDS drugs all work after the virus already has invaded those cells, by blocking either of two substances that HIV uses to reproduce and spread.
The US approved the drug for adults and children age 6 and up.
“The accelerated approval of this new drug should provide new hope for those suffering from advanced HIV infection,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.
AP, Washington