Zidovudine

Zidovudine, also known as AZT, is the first antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, a nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor that works by selectively inhibiting HIV's reverse transcriptase, the enzyme the virus uses to copy its RNA into DNA. Chemist Jerome Horwitz first synthesized the compound in 1964 at Wayne State University under a National Institutes of Health grant, long before its antiviral use was known; National Cancer Institute scientists discovered its potency against HIV in laboratory studies in February 1985, and phase one clinical trials began later that year at the National Cancer Institute and Duke University. Burroughs Wellcome filed the patent in 1985 and the drug received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration on March 20, 1987, becoming the first approved treatment for HIV, marketed under the trade name Retrovir.