Researchers believe new HIV drug fixes gaps in treatment

Chinese developers of a drug to treat HIV said on Thursday they are hopeful it will overcome the shortcomings of a similar treatment in use for over a decade.

The National Medical Products Administration on Sunday approved clinical trials of Thioraviroc, which was developed by researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Thioraviroc acts as an "antagonist" against a receptor called CCR5, which along with another receptor is necessary for the virus to enter human cells and replicate.