FDA Okays New HIV Drugs
WASHINGTON
US drug authorities have approved the first in a new class of drugs to fight HIV by preventing the virus from entering the immune system's cells.
The Food and Drug Administration gave its go-ahead to a medicine known as T20 but to be marketed under the name Fuzeon, which patients would take in combination with other drugs already used to fight HIV.
Fuzeon belongs to a new class of drugs known as "fusion inhibitors," which work by preventing the AIDS virus from entering cells. Existing drugs fight the virus after it has already infected the immune system's cells.
"The accelerated approval of this new drug should provide new hope for those suffering from advanced HIV infection," Health and human services secretary Tommy Thompson said.
"Fuzeon adds an important dimension to our armamentarium of anti-HIV treatments," FDA chief Mark McClellan said. "By affecting viral spread in a different way from existing medications, it helps reduce viral loads, which has been shown to slow HIV progression in patients who have developed resistance to currently available medications," he added.
Doctors who attended the International AIDS conference in Madrid last year rated the molecule contained in Fuzeon as one of the biggest innovations in the battle to treat HIV since the emergence of antiretrovirals in the 1990s.
The molecule, a so-called fusion inhibitor named enfuvirtide, enabled patients to recover from an immune system that had been almost wrecked by sky-high levels of HIV in their blood and a rock-bottom level of CD4 immune cells.
The FDA decision prompted the New England Journal of Medicine to issue an early release of a study set for publication in May, documenting the drug's effectiveness among patients who had become resistant to existing drugs.
The drug is administered by injection. About 1,000 patients underwent trials in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australia.
AFP
PCMC Marks 23rd Year
The Philippine Children's Medical Center (PCMC), a tertiary hospital for newborns, children, adolescents, and high-risk women, celebrated its 23rd year with a week-long line-up of fun and scientific activities.
Its theme of PCMC: Working Towards a Happy and Healthy Family was chosen in conjunction with the celebration of the Year of the Family. It exemplified the institution's mission and vision of public health service as it highlighted PCMC's role in the Filipino family and community.
From April 21 to 25, PCMC conducted orchid, herbal and alternative medicines and plant exhibits, children's on-the-spot ceramic and paper coloring contest, sportsfest, Game Ka Na Ba and Karaoke singing contests, and a cultural parade.
A poster presentation on the IPPV (intermittent positive pressure ventilation) treatment, DOTS for tuberculosis in children, and extremely low-birth-weight babies was also made.
Lectures were also held on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the role of the family in values formation. In addition, a new crisis intervention center for children and adolescents was inaugurated on the second wing of the intensive care unit.
In a press conference, PCMC officers and doctors, and some celebrities stressed the need for greater public support for the hospital's programs. Although PCMC receives subsidy from the government, the demand for its services sometimes outpace what it could offer. They explained that target patients actually just receive a pittance of what private foundations are able to raise from fund drives, since so much of the money goes to the dissemination of information through mass media.
The press conference was attended by PCMC executive director Lilian Lee, head of the intensive pediatric care Herminia Zifra, Drs. Benjamin Lim, Loida Villanueva, and Sheila Masangkay. Celebrities invited were Mandy Ochoa, spouses Ace Espinosa and Maricel Morales, and Jestoni and Liza Alarcon.
M. Ciriacruz
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