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Medicines in Development for HIV/AIDS
While HIV/AIDS is one of the most devastating diseases affecting people around the world, overall global growth of the disease has stabilized, the number of new infections has been steadily declining, and there are fewer AIDS-related deaths due to the availability of antiretroviral therapy.
Over the past three decades, more than 30 medicines have been approved to treat HIV/AIDS. While these medicines have helped to prolong the lives of HIV-infected patients, it is not enough. America’s biopharmaceutical researchers are focusing on improved treatment regimens, more effective treatments, and intensifying their efforts to develop preventative vaccines. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative estimates that a vaccine that is 50 percent effective and given to only 30 percent of the population could reduce new HIV infections by 24 percent over 15 years.
Currently, 88 medicines and vaccines are in development, including:
- An antisense gene therapy that uses genetic material derived from HIV-1 itself to remove disease-causing aspects of the virus.
- A transdermal vaccine comprised of DNA plasmids that helps suppress virus replication and destroys HIV-infected cells.
- One in a new class of medicines is intended to prevent the HIV virus from attaching to new cells and breaking through the cell membrane.
HIV/AIDS remains a formidable foe and worldwide epidemic—for every two patients who begin HIV treatment, five more are infected. We will find a cure eventually, but in the meantime, America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are continuing their efforts to develop novel and more effective therapies and vaccines to contain the disease so the millions of patients suffering today have a hope of a better tomorrow.
Read More About HIV/AIDS
- World AIDS Day
- 30 Years Of AIDS: Meet The Woman Who Made The First Major Breakthrough In Treatment
- At the Front Line Against AIDS: The Challenges Nurses Face
- At the Front Line Against AIDS: A Patient Advocate's View
- At the Front Line Against AIDS: In the Words of a Researcher
"30 Years of Hope"
- From PhRMA's President's Desk: 30 Years of Hope
- Progress Shouldn't Mean Complacence
- AIDS Physicians Share Their Hope With NPR
- Looking Back on 30 Years of HIV/AIDS
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