The new AIDS drug Prezista (darunavir) made by Tibotec Pharmaceutical Ltd., a unit of Johnson and Johnson, has shown to be very powerful in controlling the virus count in the blood. Prezista belongs to the protease inhibitors class of drugs that acts by preventing the spread of HIV by replication.

This drug when given in combination with the earlier drug ritronavir, forty five percent of the patients experienced a drastic drop in the concentration of HIV in their blood.

HIV attacks the body’s white blood cells and hampers the immune system. Those patients who had had the drug Prezista showed an increase around five times in the number of white blood cells in their body.

“Its potency has been something that has been very unexpected and very impressive. We were very excited by the findings of quite dramatic suppression in viral load in patients,” said a lead researcher Dr. Bonaventura Clotet of the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol in Barcelona.

The drug was approved last year for use in the European Union by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.