Chinese company develops new HIV fusion inhibitor

China's FusoGen Pharmaceuticals has developed a new HIV fusion inhibitor that is currently in human clinical trials, Agence France-Presse reports. FusoGen CEO Zhou Genfa told the news agency that the drug, which has been registered as a new medicine with China's State Food and Drug Administration, is modeled on Fuzeon, the U.S. drug developed and marketing by Roche and Trimeris, but that the Chinese medication uses a different molecular modeling. The company hopes to have the drug available in China by the end of 2006 and says it will be priced considerably lower than Fuzeon, which costs U.S. HIV patients about $20,000 per year.