medicine for HIV

Q: One of my colleague is suffering from HIV. What is the present state of development of medicine for HIV. In your opinion how long likely to take for the medicine to come to the market. There is certainly advancement in the sense presently available tablets keeps his virus count at check comparing to 10 years ago there was no medicine at all. So therefore my important query is. Is there is any development in the improvisation of the existing medicines

A:Treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS is an area where maximum research is taking place the world over. Many therapies are under investigation. It takes years for a new chemical entity to travel from laboratory to animals to human trials to marketing. Unfortunately no time frame can be accurately given. However even today lots of suppressive drugs are available, namely: 1. NRTIs: abacavir, didanosine, lamivudine, stavudine, zalcitabine, zidovudine.2. NNRTIs: Efavirenz, nevirapine.3. Protease inhibitors: indinavir, lopinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir, saquinavir.4. DNA polymerase inhibitors (for CMV retinitis in AIDS): cidofovir, foscarnet, ganciclovir.5. Oligonucleotides: fomivirsen sodium.6. Atovaquone for HIV-related pneumonia. I have given the above list to reassure people with HIV infection that quite a large number of drugs are in the market and an appropriate combination is effective in a great majority of patients while we are waiting for breakthrough in HIV/AIDS cure.