HIV/AIDS Medicines:
Few years ago,when the AIDS epidemic began patients rarely lived longer than a few years. But nowadays there are many effective medicines to fight the infection, and people with HIV have longer, healthier lives.
There are five major types of medicines:
Reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors – Interfere with a critical step during the HIV life cycle and keep the virus from making copies of itself.
Protease inhibitors – Interfere with a protein that HIV uses to make infectious viral particles.
Fusion inhibitors – Block the virus from entering the body’s cells.
Integrase inhibitors – Block an enzyme HIV needs to make copies of itself.
Multidrug combinations – Combine two or more different types of drugs into one.
These medicines are help the people with HIV, but they are not perfect. They do not cure HIV/AIDS. People with HIV infection still have the virus in their bodies. They can still spread HIV to others through unprotected sex and needle sharing, even when they are taking their medicines.
NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Antiretrovirals: HIV and AIDS Drugs.HIV medications can help to lower your viral load, fight infections, and improve your quality of life.
The goals for these medicines are:
*Control the growth of the virus.
*Improve how well your immune system works and Slow or stop the symptoms.
The FDA has approved more than two dozen antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV infection. Doctors recommend taking a combination or “cocktail” of at least two of them. This is called antiretroviral therapy, or ART.Some other medicines and supplements do not mix well with HIV drugs, so make sure you tell your doctor about everything you are taking.medicines are….,
Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (N RTIs)NRTIs force the HIV virus to use faulty versions of building blocks so infected cells can’t make more HIV.
Abacavir, or ABC (Ziagen)
Didanosine, or ddl (Videx)
Emtricitabine, or FTC (Emtriva)
Lamivudine, or 3TC (Epivir)
Stavudine, or d4T (Zerit)
Tenofovir alafenamide or TAF (Vemlidy).
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate or TDF (Viread).
Zidovudine or ZDV (Retrovir)
Non-nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs)
These are also called “non-nukes.” NNRTIs bind to a specific protein so the HIV virus can’t make copies of itself, similar to jamming a zipper.
Delavirdine or DLV (Rescripor)
Doravirine, or DOR (Pifeltro)
Efavirenz or EFV (Sustiva)
Etravirine or ETR (Intelence)
Nevirapine or NVP (Viramune)
Rilpivirine or RPV (Edurant)
Protease Inhibitors (PIs)
These drugs block a protein that infected cells need to put together new HIV virus particles.
Atazanavir or ATV (Reyataz)
Darunavir or DRV (Prezista)
Fosamprenavir or FPV (Lexiva)
Indinavir or IDV (Crixivan)
Lopinavir + ritonavir, or LPV/r (Kaletra)
Nelfinavir or NFV (Viracept)
Ritonavir or RTV (Norvir)
Saquinavir or SQV (Invirase, Fortovase)
Tipranavir or TPV (Aptivus)
Fusion Inhibitors
Unlike NRTIs, NNRTIs, and PIs — which work on infected cells — these drugs help block HIV from getting inside healthy cells in the first place.
Enfuvirtide, or ENF or T-20 (Fuzeon) and CCR5 Antagonist.
Maraviroc, or MVC (Selzentry), also stops HIV before it gets inside a healthy cell, but in a different way than fusion inhibitors.
Bictegravir or BIC (combined with other drugs as Biktarvy)
Dolutegravir or DTG (Tivicay)
Elvitegravir or EVG (Vitekta)
Raltegravir or RAL (Isentress)
This is a new class of antiviral medication specifically for adults living with HIV who have tried multiple HIV medications and whose HIV has been resistant to current available therapies. Ibalizumab-uiyk (Trogarzo) blocks your body’s HIV infected cells from spreading the virus into those which are uninfected. It is administered by IV.
Cobicistat (Tybost) is a drug that helps some drugs (atazanavir, darunavir, elvitegravir) work better, but it can increase the levels of other medicines you may be taking (always tell your doctor about these other medicines).
Atazanavir + cobicistat, or ATV/c (Evotaz)
Darunavir + cobicistat, or DRV/c (Prezcobix)
Elvitegravir + TDF + FTC + cobicistat, or EVG/c/TDF/FTC (Stribild)
Elvitegravir + TAF + FTC + cobicistat, or EVG/c/TAF/FTC (Genvoya)
Some drug manufacturers put together specific medicines into a single pill so they’re easier to take, including:
Abacavir + lamivudine, or ABC/3TC (Epzicom)
Abacavir + lamivudine + zidovudine, or ABC/3TC/ZDV (Trizivir)
Atazanavir + cobicistat, or ATV/c (Evotaz)
Bictegravir + tenofovir alafenamide + emtricitabine, or BIC/TAF/FTC (Biktarvy)
Darunavir + cobicistat, or DRV/c (Prezcobix)
Darunavir + cobicistat + tenofovir alafenamide + emtricitabine, or DRV/c/TAF/FTC) (Symtuza)
Dolutegravir + abacavir + lamivudine, or DTG/ABC/3TC (Triumeq)
Dolutegravir + rilpivirine, or DTG/RPV (Juluca)
Doravirine + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + lamivudine, or DOR/TDF/3TC (Delstrigo)
Efavirenz + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate +emtricitabine, or EFV/TDF/FTC (Atripla)
Elvitegravir + cobicistat + + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + emtricitabine or EVG/c/TAF/FTC (Genvoya)
Rilpivirine + tenofovir alafenamide + emtricitabine , or RPV/TAF/FTC (Odefsey)
Rilpivirine + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + emtricitabine or RPV/TDF/FTC (Complera)
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + emtricitabine, or TDF/FTC (Truvada)
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + lamivudine, or TDF/3TC (Cimduo)
Zidovudine + Lamivudine or ZDV/3TC (Combivir)
Truvada has also been approved as a way to prevent HIV infection for people who are at high risk. Even if you take it, you have to practice safe sex, too.
Every year, thousands of women are infected with HIV. There is hope. There are drugs that can treat HIV and help people live longer.
This page provides some basic facts about the anti-HIV medicines that have been approved by the FDA. Use this information to help you talk to your healthcare provider about the medicines you are taking.
Helpful Tips
Quick Facts
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
Risks and Side Effects
Pregnancy Registries
Types of HIV Drugs
Combination Drugs
CYP3A Inhibitors
Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)
Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs)
Protease Inhibitors
Integrase Inhibitors
Fusion Inhibitors
CCR5 Antagonists
Quick Facts
There is a lot you need to know about HIV. Read these quick facts before you talk with your healthcare provider about your HIV treatment.
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
HIV makes it hard for your body to fight off sickness. There are cells in your blood called “CD4 cells” or “T cells”. There are medicines that you can take to slow the build up of HIV and increase the CD4 cells in your body. These medicines do not cure HIV. You can still give the disease to someone else.
The medicines used to treat HIV are called “antiretroviral treatment’ or ART. People with HIV may need to take medicine every day. Some people take 1 pill each day. Other people take 3 or more medicines every day. The combination of the different HIV medicines you take is called your regimen.
It is important that you take your HIV medicines every day. Do not stop taking your medicines without first talking to your doctor. Over time, you can get very sick if you do not take your medicines.
