FDA Panel Considers HIV Drug for Prevention

An FDA advisory panel voted to back the use of an HIV drug made by Gilead Sciences to help prevent certain healthy but at-risk people from contracting the virus that causes AIDS.

An FDA advisory panel voted to back the use of an HIV drug made by Gilead Sciences to help prevent certain healthy but at-risk people from contracting the virus that causes AIDS.

A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now two-and-a-half-years-old and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection. There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

A panel of federal health advisers has endorsed the first drug shown to prevent HIV infection in healthy people, clearing the way for a potentially landmark approval in the 30-year-old effort against the virus that causes AIDS.

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) -- A panel of federal health advisers has endorsed the first drug shown to prevent HIV infection in healthy people, clearing the way for a potentially landmark approval in the 30-year-old effort against the virus that causes AIDS....

Federal drug regulators are affirming that a landmark study showing that a popular HIV-fighting pill already on the market can also help people avoid contracting the virus that causes AIDS in the first place.

By Ed Liston: The news that a toddler born with HIV infection was "functionally cured" not only holds a lot of promise for biopharmaceutical companies involved in discovery and development of an effective AIDS drug, it is likely to change the direction of AIDS related research.

By Qineqt:Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delayed the approval of two HIV-drugs, Truvada and Quad, until September. However, Truvada has already been a treatment drug and is prescribed by some doctors as a preventive measure as well.