Main types of HIV drugs
There are six main types of drugs that work at different parts of the HIV lifecycle.
| RTIs or nukes | Reverse transcriptase inhibitors – also called nucleoside or nucleotide analogues |
| NNRTIs | Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors or non-nukes |
| PIs | Protease inhibitors |
| Fusion inhibitors | Fusion inhibitors are a type of entry inhibitor |
| CCR5 inhibitors | CCR5 inhibitors are a type of entry inhibitor |
| INIs | Integrase inhibitors |
Within each class, only a few drugs or combinations are recommended.
Even though there are over 26 HIV drugs and hundreds of potential choices, only two main types of combination are recommended.
First combination meds
UK guidelines include starting treatment with two nukes plus a third drug.
The 2012 draft recommendations are summarised below.
Guidelines recommend starting with either:
| Preferred | Alternative | |
| Two ‘nukes’ | tenofovir + FTC (Truvada) | abacavir + 3TC (Kivexa) |
| Plus a third drug | efavirenz (NNRTI) or
atazanavir/r (boosted PI) or darunavir/r (boosted PI) or raltegravir (integrase inhibitor) |
lopinavir/r (boosted PI) or
fosamprenavir/r (boosted PI) or nevirapine (NNRTI) or rilpivirine (NNRT |