Dolutegravir is an experimental new drug under investigation for the treatment of HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

 infection. Dolutegravir is an integrase inhibitor

Discovery and development of integrase inhibitors

The first human immunodeficiency virus case was reported in the 1980s. Many drugs have been discovered to treat the disease but mutations in the virus and resistance to the drugs make development difficult. Integrase is a viral enzyme that integrates retroviral DNA into the host cell genome....

. Also known as S/GSK1349572 or just "572", the drug is under development by GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

 (GSK). Studies have shown dolutegravir to be effective in patients with resistance to the only currently available integrase inhibitor, raltegravir. Clinical trial

Clinical trial

Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...

s are underway to support dolutegravir in combination with abacavir

Abacavir

Abacavir is a nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor used to treat HIV and AIDS. It is available under the trade name Ziagen and in the combination formulations Trizivir and Kivexa/Epzicom...

 and lamivudine

Lamivudine

Lamivudine is a potent nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor .It is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline with the brand names Zeffix, Heptovir, Epivir, and Epivir-HBV.Lamivudine has been used for treatment of chronic hepatitis B at a lower dose than for treatment of HIV...

, in a new new fixed dose combination called 572-Trii.