From Many, One

Three pharmaceutical companies will develop a treatment for AIDS that combines several expensive drugs into a one-pill, once-a-day form. The goal is an easier, more affordable drug regimen for those suffering from the disease in poor countries. It would combine efavirenz, sold by Merck as Stocrin

and Bristol-Myers Squibb as Sustiva, with Emtriva and Viread, made by California-based Gilead. The single pill would eliminate the difficulties and cost of taking multiple pills at just the right times throughout the day, a common and often insurmountable hurdle to effective AIDS therapy for those treating the disease under difficult circumstances. The PDA said it will work to speed up the regulatory process for such reconfigured AIDS treatments, with a goal of granting approvals within two to six weeks after an application is received.