For women, transmission of HIV through heterosexual contact has risen by 38 percent, equal to the number of women who contract HIV by injection drug use.2

Researchers discover that the HIV virus is highly susceptible to mutation and likely to result in drug resistance to antiviral therapies.3

Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis announces he is HIV positive, leading to public debate on disclosure.4

FIRST PROTEASE INHIBITOR BECOMES AVAILABLE

In a development that would forever change the HIV/AIDS treatment landscape, the FDA approved an open label study of saquinavir in June 1995. The first drug of its kind to be made available outside ongoing clinical trials, saquinavir is a protease inhibitor. It targets a cell’s protease, which is a protein needed by HIV to replicate itself.

On December 6, 1995, just six months later—virtually a nanosecond on a typical drug approval timeline—saquinavir was approved for use in combination with other nucleoside analogue medications. The age of combination therapy—and a new era of hope for people with access to the new treatment—had now arrived.

The news media referred to the new treatment alternatively as a “drug cocktail,” “triple combination therapy,” “combination therapy,” “antiretroviral therapy,” and often simply as “protease inhibitors.” For scientists, the use of drugs (usually two) in combination with a protease inhibitor was called highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART.

HAART became widely available to people living with HIV/AIDS in 1996. AIDS morbidity and mortality fell almost immediately in the industrialized world, and the way we think about AIDS also changed forever.