Merck/Gilead Once-A-Day AIDS Pill Not Available in Most Places - AHF Urges Speed-Up of Reg...(lifesaving drugs. The key value of a...),Health

The key value of an all-in-one, one pill per day HIV treatment regimen is the reduced pill burden required for patients. Currently, the most widely used regimen for treatment naive patients consists of a combination of at least two pills taken twice per day, often required to be taken with food and during mid-day hours. Atripla, however, only requires a single pill to be taken once daily without food before bed.

"As we have seen in many of our clinics, pill burden and side effects can be challenging for patients to become accustomed to, and they are among the primary reasons patients do not follow their treatment regimens," said Dr. Homayoon Khanlou, AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Chief of Medicine. "With a complete daily treatment regimen in one pill, the advantage goes much further than simply fewer pills and fewer side effects. The ease of treatment results in improved adherence with more patients taking their medication as prescribed, which greatly increases the effectiveness of treatment. This also results in fewer patients developing resistance to the drugs, and from having to move on to more expensive second-line drugs."

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention and education provider. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 61,000 individuals in 15 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at http://www.aidshealth.org.

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