Indinavir (Cont.)

Indinavir: What Should I Tell My Healthcare Provider?

You should talk with your healthcare provider prior to taking indinavir if you have:
 
Also, let your healthcare provider know if you are:
 
Make sure to tell your healthcare provider about all other medicines you are taking, including prescription and non-prescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.
 
(Click Precautions and Warnings With Indinavir to learn more, including information on who should not take the drug.)
 

How Does Indinavir Work?

Indinavir is part of a group of HIV medications known as protease inhibitors. These medicines work by blocking a process that the HIV virus needs in order to multiply.
 
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the virus that causes AIDS. Like other viruses, HIV must use a person's own cells to reproduce. Once inside an infected cell, the HIV virus uses the cell to make DNA (to make new HIV viruses that can spread to other cells). The DNA is made in long strands that must be clipped into shorter, usable strands using enzymes called proteases.
 
Indinavir is a protease inhibitor, which means that it stops protease enzymes from clipping DNA into short strands. Since the long, unclipped DNA strands cannot be used to make new viruses, this helps stop the spread of HIV to other uninfected cells.
 
Indinavir is not a cure for HIV or AIDS. It can help stop HIV from infecting uninfected cells in the body, but it does not help cells that have already been infected with the virus.
 
(Indinavir Continued: Page 3)

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Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD;