New HIV Treatments

Trevor Leong, Staff Writer

Even after 30 years of research, we still don’t have an entirely effective HIV vaccine. Recently, however, scientists have developed a new HIV vaccine that is currently under clinical testing for FDA approval. The trial, dubbed SV001, is being tested in Africa and Europe on homosexual subjects. The vaccine looks promising. Despite all the good news, those who are vaccinated can still be infected by the virus due to its rapid mutation rate.

What about the 36.7 million who are already infected? For them, there is Truvada and many other FDA approved antivirals for HIV.  More recently, there is also a new drug in its trial phase that is effective against drug resistant strains of HIV. Called ibalizumab, it has started its experimental period and could potentially overtake Truvada as the leading HIV treatment.