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What are the different kinds of antiretroviral drugs?

From Treat Yourself Right • 5 January 2009
Drug ClassA group of anti-HIV drugs with the same target of action. Anti-HIV drug classes include nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors and non-nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, as well as several others. Combining drugs from three or more classes is the basis of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). What drugs are in this group?
Nucleoside/nucleotide analogues (reverse transcriptase inhibitors)
  • AZT (zidovudine or Retrovir)
  • ddI (didanosine or Videx)
  • d4T (stavudine or Zerit)
  • 3TC (lamivudine or Epivir)
  • abacavir (Ziagen)
  • tenofovir (Viread)
  • emtricitabine (FTC, Truvada)
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs or ‘non-nukes’)
  • nevirapine (Viramune)
  • efavirenz (Stocrin)
Protease inhibitors
  • indinavir (Crixivan)
  • ritonavir (Norvir)
  • saquinavir - Hard/Soft gel (Invirase, Fortovase)
  • nelfinavir (Viracept)
  • fosamprenavir (Telzir)
  • lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra)
  • atazanavir (Reyataz)
  • darunavir (Prezista, TMC-114)
  • tipranavir/ritonavir (Aptivus/r)
CCR5 Entry & Fusion inhibitors
  • Fuzeon (enfuvirtide or T-20)
  • Maraviroc (Selzentry, Celsentri). Not yet licensed in Australia, but available under trial/access scheme.
Integrase Inhibitors
  • raltegravir, MK-0518 (Isentress).

Co-formulations

Some drugs are formulated together in order to reduce the number of pills that you have to take. There is a marketing advantage in co-formulation for the manufactures - the ease of use means that people are more likely to take drugs made by a particular company if the drugs can be combined into a single pill. Co-formulated drugs include:

  • Combivir (AZT/3TC)
  • Trizivir (AZT/3TC and abacavir)
  • Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir)
  • Truvada (FTC and tenofovir)
  • Kivexa (abacavir/3TC)

Treat Yourself Right

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This Resource was first published on 5 January 2009 — more than three years ago.

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