NEW HIV DRUG COMING

MBABANE – Swaziland will introduce a new and much improved antiretroviral drug, Dolutegravir, to be available in January 2018.

This is a two-drug combination of Dolutegravir and Rilpivirine, which is expected to replace the three-drug combination in one pill; Tenoforvir, Lamivudine and Efavirenz, which were approved by the World Health Organisation for people living with HIV and AIDS.
The drug is currently used by HIV positive people in most developing countries.

Information sourced from the Sunday Times shows that Dolutegravir is used by HIV positive patients in Europe and America.
It is cheap and has far less side effects than the current drug and HIV cannot develop resistance to it.
The new HIV drug will also be launched in South Africa next year.

Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula, said the country was working on guidelines to incorporate the new drug on the list as soon as possible, and it would be made available free of charge just like the current drug.
Magagula said so far, the drug had better advantages in that it was cheaper to make and many patients on trial tolerated it.
He said the medicine seemed to have an edge over some which were already in use.

According to Magagula, more Swazis will benefit from this cost effective and safer drug.
“It is not often in medicine that we get something safer and more effective that is also cheaper. This is a big step forward‚” said Deputy Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, Professor Francois Venter.

In medicine‚ usually better drugs are more expensive‚ he explained.

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