Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "PharmaFocus: HIV - R&D Strategies towards Cure and Prevention" report to their offering.
New Therapies Are Necessary to Redefine Current HIV Treatment Paradigm.
Since the discovery of HIV as the causative agent of AIDS in the early 1980s, research has made tremendous strides to transform this deadly disease into a manageable one. The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the 1990s promoted the combination of drugs from different classes to block HIV replication and result in undetectable viral loads. This came with a price: increased pill burden.
Companies such as Gilead and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) addressed this issue by introducing fixed-dose combination drugs (FDCs) and single-tablet regimens (STRs), such as Truvada (emtricitabine / tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) and Atripla (efavirenz / emtricitabine / tenofovir disoproxil fumarate). With efficacy and side-effect profiles continuously improving over time, antiretroviral therapy (ART) has allowed patients to initiate therapy earlier.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released new guidelines during the 7th International AIDS Society meeting in July 2013, recommending the initiation of ART when CD4 T-cell counts drop below 500 cells/mm3. Furthermore, countries such as the US and China have already adopted the test-and-treat approach, offering treatment to people upon diagnosis, regardless of their CD4 counts.
According to the WHO, the earlier initiation of ART is going to have a positive impact on the HIV market, increasing the number of people eligible for therapy from 17 million to 26 million (WHO, 2013).
Despite Successful ART, Significant Unmet Needs Remain for HIV Cure and Prevention
