Paradigm shift in AIDS

Perhaps because there is no controversy or hint of scandal associated with the product, an FDA advisory committee's unanimous endorsement last week of Isentress raltegravir from Merck & Co. Inc. barely registered on media radar screens. But the Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee meeting sets the stage for the second first-in-class HIV therapy approval in 2007 and what will likely be a paradigm shift in AIDS treatment.

Isentress, which has a mid-October PDUFA date, would be the first marketed integrase inhibitor...