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Revision as of 07:52, 12 March 2003 by Susan Mason (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Zidovudine (AZT) was the first antiviral drug to be approved for treating HIV. It was originally developed to treat cancer, but was also found to block the action of the "reverse transcriptase" enzyme that HIV uses to replicate its RNA for splicing into the DNA of a target cell. Side-effects include anemia. Jerome Horowitz first synthesized the drug in 1964, under a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. The formula was later bought by Glaxo-Wellcome. In February 1985, NIH's Hiroaki Mitsuya demonstrated the drug's effectiveness against HIV. The drug typically sells for ~$8 per daily dose (pdd) and is manufactured at ~$0.63pdd. (The Best Democracy Money Can Buy|1 p.64)
References
- 1 -- The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast (2002)