WEDNESDAY, April 25 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Tuesday unanimously recommended the approval of the first of a new class of HIV-suppressing medications. The drug, Pfizer Inc.'s maraviroc, is a CCR5 antagonist.
The FDA panel is recommending approval of the drug for treatment-experienced patients already taking antiretroviral agents. Pfizer would sell the drug under the brand name Celsentri.
"This is a new class of drug," said Jeffrey Laurence, M.D., director of the Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City. "It attacks part of the way HIV binds to a cell," he explained. "It looks spectacular in phase II and phase III testing, in terms of lowering virus loads and increasing CD4 T-cell counts."
In recent a trial of more than 1,000 subjects, maraviroc suppressed the virus in 45 percent of patients, compared with 23 percent of those who were taking a placebo. Patients in the trial were also taking other HIV drugs.
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