Johnson and Johnson announces availability of Prezista

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has announced the availability of a 75 mg dose of Prezista (darunavir) for paediatric HIV patients.

Developed in partnership with Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, the product is marketed by Tibotec’s Therapeutics division.

Ram Yogev, director of paediatric adolescent and maternal HIV infection at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, US, said the condition affects thousands of children.

He added: “The availability of Prezista in a formulation designed especially for children over the age of six provides an important new option for these patients.”

The drug’s launch follows approval on December 18th last year, after an open-label phase II trial.

Named Delphi, the study analysed the product’s safety, efficacy, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in 80 treatment-experienced patients aged between six and 18 years.

At week 24, the virologic response 74 per cent of the subjects had at least one log10 HIV-1 RNA decrease from baseline.

J&J employs 119,400 people across 57 countries.