Drug Holds Promise Against AIDS

HealthDay, July, 2008 by Randy Dotinga, HealthDay Reporter

New research offers more evidence that a new AIDS drug brings significant benefits to patients who have failed other treatments.

The drug, known as raltegravir (Isentress), almost doubles the likelihood that patients will beat back the AIDS virus despite being immune to other medications, according to a study in the July 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine .

"We now have a drug that can bring many people back from a downward curve with no hope for resurrection of the immune system and no hope for control of the virus," said study author Dr. Roy Steigbigel, head of the HIV Center at Stony Brook University.

funded by Merck & Co., the drug's manufacturer -- shows that the raltegravir continues to work over time, Steigbigel said.

While AIDS has become...