FDA approves new combination pill for HIV treatment

The FDA has approved Stribild (elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), a new once-a-day combination pill to treat HIV-1 infection in adults who have never been treated for HIV infection.

Here's the information from the FDA:

Stribild contains two previously approved HIV drugs plus two new drugs, elvitegravir and cobicistat.

Elvitegravir is an HIV integrase strand transfer inhibitor, a drug that interferes with one of the enzymes that HIV needs to multiply.

Cobicistat, a pharmacokinetic enhancer, inhibits an enzyme that metabolizes certain HIV drugs and is used to prolong the effect of elvitegravir.

The combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, approved in 2004 and marketed as Truvada, blocks the action of another enzyme that HIV needs to replicate in a person’s body. Together, these drugs provide a complete treatment regimen for HIV infection.

Read more about this approval here.