IT IS a first for pharmacogenetics – and a potential lifeline for people with drug-resistant HIV. On 6 August, the US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) approved Pfizer’s drug maraviroc, the first in a new class of HIV drugs designed to prevent the virus entering the immune system’s CD4 cells.
Significantly, the drug will only be given to people who have had “pharmacogenetic” testing to show that their type of HIV enters CD4 cells via a particular molecule.
To enter the cells, HIV binds to both the CD4 receptor and one of two co-receptors, CCR5 and CXCR4. Maraviroc specifically blocks the…
