Behind the birth of the first anti-HIV drug

AZT is the first HIV drug in the world. However, before being passed, it also caused much controversy in the scientific world.

Today, if someone is diagnosed with HIV, they can choose to be treated with one of the 41 drugs that helps control the level of HIV virus at the lowest level, along with living and taking medicine at the right time .

7 years after HIV was first discovered, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially approved the first anti-HIV drug. Of the millions of infected people, only a few thousand people died at the time, but public health officials said the high death rate was an inevitable result if a positive tester was not treat certain medications.

AZT, or Azidothymidine , was originally developed by an American researcher in 1960 to prevent cancer. It works by inserting into the DNA of cancer cells, disrupting the ability to regenerate and produce tumors.

AZT is the first HIV drug approved.It is used as a component in Combivir and Trizivir.(Photo: Time).

Two decades later, when AIDS emerged as a new infectious disease, the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome (BW) began conducting major tests on anti-HIV agents, in hopes of finding anything there. Can resist this new enemy.

Among those tested were compound S, a reconstructed version of the original AZT. When the S compound is added to the food for HIV-infected animal cells, it seems to work to block the activity of the virus.

The BW pharmaceutical company sent samples to the FDA and the US National Cancer Institute. Dr. Samuel Broder of the Cancer Institute recognized the importance of this discovery. But only one anti-HIV compound is not enough. In order to produce enough drugs for millions of people infected with HIV, researchers must make sure that it is safe and actually prevents HIV in some way, even if it does not cure the disease. At that time, such testing took 8-10 years.

However, patients cannot wait long. Under enormous pressure from the public, FDA has conducted AZT testing quickly.

Scientists started injecting AZT into patients with the first goal to see if it was safe. Although causing many side effects, including serious problems in the intestine, immune system damage, nausea, headache, it is considered relatively safe.

For such results, a controversial trial was conducted with nearly 300 people diagnosed with AIDS. Random participants received either AZT or a sugar pill for 6 months. Neither doctors nor patients knew exactly which group to drink.

After 16 weeks, the BW company announced that they stopped testing because there was strong evidence that this compound was effective. One group only had one death, while the other group had 19 fatalities in a short time. The company believes that continuing the test will not be ethical in medicine.

The results of AZT's effects are considered the "breakthrough" and "light at the end of the tunnel" of the BW company. This prompted FDA approval through the first anti-AIDS drug on March 19, 1987.

But research is still controversial. The report did not show standards for treating other AIDS-related problems such as pneumonia, diarrhea and other symptoms. And there are still many unanswered questions about this drug when it has been approved as long as its benefits last? Does it work for people who don't get sick? .

Currently, many researched HIV medicines help prevent viruses at specific times in its life cycle. Used in combination, they will help control HIV, reduce fertility and infection of the virus. And for people with HIV, their treatment still includes AZT.