How HIV drugs have changed over the decades
By 
Anthony King2024-05-07T09:01:00
From one big pill that only prolonged lives a few months, through the 20 pills a day years to modern combination therapies, treating HIV is a science success story
What were the early treatments for people infected with HIV?
Our medicine cabinets are spartan in antivirals and initially there was no treatment available. Around 90% of those infected had just 5 to 10 years life expectancy.
The very first therapy approved was azidothymidine (AZT) in 1987. This compound had first been made in 1964 as an anti-cancer drug. The company Boroughs Wellcome had screened many compounds against HIV-infected animal cells in a dish, before deciding to test AZT in patient trials. ‘When it got into the clinic, it seemed like a miracle,’ says Dennis Liotta, a chemist at Emory University in Atlanta, US, who made major contributions to HIV drug discovery. ‘Patients got much better, but only for a few months.’ It prolonged the lives of patients for 6 to 18 months.