Pfizer to roll out new AIDS drug in July

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. said Wednesday that it would launch a new HIV-AIDS drug, Maraviroc, in July after tests were conducted successfully in the United States.

"A new HIV-AIDS medicine is coming out in July after tests being carried out in the United States by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)," the head of the firm in South Africa, Richard Paulson said at a briefing to journalists.

The new drug, which will be taken orally, is set to be formally approved by the FDA on June 20, a spokesman for the company said.

Pfizer has previously produced a number of anti-retroviral drugs to combat AIDS, but has run into heavy criticism from campaigners who claim the firm's patents have priced drugs beyond the reach of many HIV sufferers.

More recently, it has been accused by the powerful US-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation of increasing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases through "irresponsible" marketing of its anti-impotency drug Viagra.

Paulson said that Maraviroc was just one of a number of new drugs in the pipeline.

"Our focus is to bring out between four and six new medicines every year between now and the next 10 years years," he said, and added that the company spends between eight (1.1 billion dollars) and 10 billion rand to develop one new medicine.

Other drugs being developed by scientists from Pfizer include Sutent for cancer, Campix to beat smoking, and Exubera for diabetes, Paulson added.