Antiretroviral therapy-newer drugs on the anvil

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is associated with major challenges to development and social progress of mankind. It is a major health problem in many parts of the world and has evolved in to a pandemic. Presently there is no cure or vaccine for the disease. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the deaths and new infections from HIV/AIDS, but these drugs are expensive and they are associated with well known-side effects and adverse drug reactions (ADR). Adverse reactions to antiretroviral drugs in HIV patients cause medication non-adherence leading to treatment failure. Hence there is continuous ongoing work to develop newer drugs which are safer, more efficacious and potent, to combat this disease. Fortunately, there are agents in novel classes of drugs such as 'protease inhibitors', 'integrase inhibitors' and 'CCR5 receptor antagonists'. Drugs in these groups have raised our expectations, few of them have been approved, and some are awaiting results of clinical trials.