Innovation and trends in the development and approval of antiviral medicines: 1987–2017 and beyond

2017 marked the 30th anniversary of the approval of zidovudine (AZT) as the first HIV/AIDS therapy. Since then, more than eighty antiviral drugs have received FDA approval, half of which treat HIV infection. Here, we provide a retrospective analysis of approved antiviral drugs, including therapeutics against other major chronic infections such as hepatitis B and C, and herpes viruses, over the last thirty years. During this time, only a few...