No magic pill, but one tablet gives hope in AIDS treatment

Seattle Times: Too often in the treatment of AIDS, progress comes in small doses. This time, that is the achievement to be celebrated.
A grueling daily regimen that required dozens of pills a decade ago is headed toward a single tablet a day to suppress the virus and related assaults on the body.
The New York Times reports two pharmaceutical companies are combining their drugs into two pills a day, on the way to one. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the new drug this week.
The collaboration of two competitors, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences, is as rare in their industry as this good news.
Managing an array of medicines is always a challenge, and the difficulty increases in countries with limited medical care and supervision for ailing patients. The global challenges of administering and maintaining pill regimens is complicated by household poverty and low literacy rates.
Complicated treatment
Simplicity will encourage many more people to take their medicine, but the treatment problem is more complicated.
Juggling large numbers of pills a day is a factor in people neglecting their medicine. But so is the potency of a drug and its side effects. One large daily tablet may literally be too much to swallow for some patients.
Substance abuse, depression and mental illness also keep people off their meds. Resistance to a specific drug in a combination may cancel out the advantage of a single dose.
The particulars will be sorted out individually, but the progress toward a manageable regimen is huge. Decades of advancement in the treatment of AIDS are of no value if people do not take their medicine. Simplicity is a big step.