A US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has voted to back the use of an HIV drug to help prevent certain healthy but at-risk people from contracting the virus. The panel voted to approve the drug for use in gay men, and for heterosexual couples in which one person is HIV-negative. The FDA is now expected to adopt the panel's recommendation, and approve a request by Gilead Sciences to market Truvada as a prevention tool. It would be the first time the agency has allowed a company to market a drug to help prevent infection. Experts are divided on whether Truvada should be approved, with a major concern being whether people would take it daily, which is required for it to work. Studies showed Truvada to be more than 90 per cent effective at preventing HIV infection among test subjects who took the drug as prescribed, but only 44 per cent effective among test populations that used it intermittently. The drug also has side effects, such as diarrhoea, nausea, fatigue, headache, dizziness, depression, insomnia, abnormal dreams and rash.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 12th May 2012 - 2:24pm