HIV antiretrovirals (AZT and combination therapy)
Antirretrovirales contra el VIH (AZT y terapia combinada)
- Date
- 1987-1996 · confidence high
- Place
- Burroughs Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States; NCI, Bethesda
- Credited to
- Jerome Horwitz (synthesis, 1964), Samuel Broder and Hiroaki Mitsuya (NCI); protease inhibitors and triple therapy (1996, David Ho and others)
- People
- 👤 Hiroaki Mitsuya1950–👤 Jerome Horwitz1919–2012👤 Samuel Broder1945–
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
First drug against HIV and, in 1996, the combination of three antivirals that turned AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic disease. It saved tens of millions of lives.
What it led to
- Patient activism (ACT UP) and the acceleration of drug approval
- Access to generics in Africa and the debate over patents
- Pre-exposure prophylaxis and the prospect of ending the epidemic
Built on
- HIV as the cause of AIDS1983-1984
- discovery of HIV (1983)
- antivirals (aciclovir)
- compound screening
Made possible
- Short-course zidovudine against mother-to-child HIV transmission1998
- Single-dose nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission (HIVNET 012)1999
- RV144 trial: the first HIV vaccine with partial efficacy2003-2009
- Tenofovir gel for HIV prevention (CAPRISA 004)2010
- Hepatitis C cure with direct-acting antivirals (sofosbuvir)2013
- pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
- direct-acting antivirals (hepatitis C)
- global generic medicines