FDA’s mobile-friendly database to aid availability of HIV drug info

The Food and Drug Administration has launched a mobile-friendly database offering clinicians and patients information on antiretrovirals, which are HIV drugs.

These drugs are used to control HIV infection, and there are several different classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV lifecycle.

“In my years as a practicing clinician, I spent time on the ground involved in a program for those impacted by HIV in Botswana, Africa,” says Stephen Hahn, MD, Commissioner of the FDA. “I saw first-hand how essential it is to have access to low-cost treatments for those impacted by HIV, regardless of where the patient may reside.”


The announcement makes ARVs eligible for purchase under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as the PEPFAR program. PEPFAR is not new, as FDA has had it on its website for a considerable time, but now the list has been transformed into a mobile-friendly database platform accessible to all entities across the globe with enhanced availability of information and data for each type of drug.

Providers, patients and procurers can access FDA-reviewed product labeling, with more details, such as the full prescribing information and summaries of scientific information needed for safe and effective use of a medication. Other information will show which drugs are suitable for pediatric patients, where each drug is manufactured, the shelf-life of medications and if a drug is subject to storage requirements.

Users of the interactive database platform will have the option of exporting reports and collecting metrics with ready access to data on mobile platforms, which may be the only way that those in other nations can receive the information, according to FDA.