US authorities approve new class of AIDS drug

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the first in a new class of drugs intended to fight the HIV/AIDS virus in a different way.

The announcement, by the drug's manufacturers Merck & Co, gives the go-ahead for the company to market the drug Isentress for those who suffer from HIV/AIDS and have shown resistance to other forms of treatment.

In a statement Merck & Co also said that the FDA ruling meant the drug will not currently be available to patients who have not received other HIV/AIDS treatment or paediatric patients.

"This is fantastic news," UCSF professor Dr Warner Greene, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, told CNN. "This drug looks more potent than virtually anything we have ever seen."

Merck & Co have stated the price of Isentress will be $27 (£14) per tablet, with a twice daily dose of the drug required.

Recent figures showed over one million Americans were living with HIV/AIDS in 2006, with 40,000 new cases of the disease diagnosed in the US every year.

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