Truvada receives FDA approval

week after the majority of experts voted for licensing of the drug.
“If taken it works,” said Dr John Mellors, chief of the infectious diseases division at the University of Pittsburgh in USA.
“Existing interventions have not reduced the number of new infections annually and new measures are needed,” he said.
Since 2004, the drug has been approved to treat people already infected with HIV.
Recent studies have shown that if taken daily, a pill of truvada can reduce the risk of acquiring HIV in negative people by at least 75 percent.
However, some members expressed concern about prospective FDA guidelines that call for education and training for prescribing physicians but avoid basic restrictions on the availability of the treatment.
Some also called for drug recipients to undergo regular HIV screening to discourage them from engaging in unprotected sex and unknowingly passing drug resistant HIV strains to their sexual partners.
“The potential for harm here is stupendous. If we were not to pay attention to that, we would have the potential as an advisory committee to do more harm than good,” said panel chairwoman, Dr Judith Feinberg of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
A recommendation on the drug will be given to the FDA regulators for their consideration and possibly endorse- ment.
The FDA is not required to the follow the panel of experts’ advice, though it typically does.
It is expected to give its final decision by June 15 this year.
Recently, South Africa also successfully proved that Tenofovier — another ARV can prevent negative women using it from acquiring HIV if used daily.

These new interventions — treatment as prevention — if proved to be effective and are approved for use by a wider population, will add to existing prevention tools, thus condoms, male circumcision, prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) among others.