The HIV wonder drug

THATO CHWAANE
Staff Writer | Wednesday February 6, 2008 00:00

 

A number of his clients seem to tolerate it and are keen on it, he adds.
Kamhuka says this drug not only reduces the number of tablets a patient has to take; it can also reduce the fatigue that comes with taking too many tablets.
The plus factor is that it can be taken without inconvenience and patients can adhere better, he says.

Atripla has been available in Botswana since the beginning of December last year. The drug is a fixed dose combination of three widely used anti-retroviral drugs, Efavirenz, Emtricitabine, and Tenofovir.

Harbhajan Singh, an HIV product specialist at Merck Sharp and Dohme  (MSD) says there have been two shipments of the Atripla so far and that demand for the drug is growing daily.

The drug is also available in Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania, among African countries. Singh says it is also widely used in the United States. Although it took a year to be approved by the Drug Regulations Unit (DRU) in Botswana, the drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US as a treatment for people living with HIV within three months.

Singh says in addition to being clinically preferred as a first-line drug internationally, it is cheaper than multiple pills.

The reigning Miss Stigma Free, Maria Motse, says the availability of Atripla is a welcome development because taking more than one pill a day can easily lead to missing or forgetting one of them.

Dr Kgosi Mompati of Riverside Hospital says Atripla is a breakthrough. It is not anything new, really, as it is a combination of three drugs, Mompati says.
When he started administering HIV/Aids drugs, patients were taking up to 15 tablets in a day. But with this once-a-day drug, a patient goes home with 30 tablets for the whole month.

Mompati says it is advisable to take Atripla at night because one of the drugs in the cocktail induces sleep.It is especially good for those on shift work as it is taken only once a day. However, Mompati does not encourage women of childbearing age to go on it unless they have no intention of having children.
This is because experiments with animals have shown that Atripla may cause malformation of a foetus.