KP-1461: a novel anti-HIV drug in limbo?

The path of an experimental drug from the laboratory to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval is typically long, rocky, and uncertain. It is especially so for a drug that turns common wisdom on its head. Take KP-1461, a new type of antiretroviral drug from Koronis Pharmaceuticals in Seattle. Unlike all of the currently approved anti-HIV drugs, which aim to reduce the amount of virus in the body by blocking viral replication, KP-1461 was designed not to inhibit replication, but rather to force newly created HIV to become less able to infect human cells.