FDA OKs First Oral Herpes Drug for HIV Patients

Famvir will become the first oral drug approved to treat recurrent herpes infections in people infected with HIV, under a new Food and Drug Administration approval.

The FDA gave British drug maker SmithKline Beecham permission to market the drug, the company said Tuesday. The drug was approved Friday.

Nearly all people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, also have at least one form of herpes simplex virus, which appears as genital herpes and cold sores. Studies have suggested that genital herpes is a significant factor in the spread of HIV.

Famvir already has FDA approval for use in otherwise healthy patients with the herpes virus. An estimated 40 million Americans suffer from the contagious infection.

The announcement helped push SmithKline’s American depositary receipts up $2.44 to close at $59.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.