Feds To Approve New Merck HIV Med

Federal advisers have cleared the way for the FDA to approve Merck's latest HIV medication, Isentress, which works by attacking integrase, one of the three enzymes used by HIV to replicate and infect cells. Isentress was created for patients who have developed resistance to other drugs and will be the first of a new class of meds called integrase inhibitors. The largest breakthrough in HIV/AIDS treatment came just over ten years ago when medications were crafted to attack the other two HIV-related enzymes, protease and reverse transcriptase.

For once, I actually like the name of a new drug. Isentress. Who guards our castle? "It is I, Sentress!" (Program note: the role of Sentress will be played by Lee Meriwether.) Still, Isentress is a awfully close to the name of the last HIV med approved, Celsentri. For awhile, HIV meds sounded like inner-city schoolgirls: Kaletra, Truvada, Lexiva. Now they've gone all Dungeons & Dragons.
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