Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PRNewswire - November 15, 2005
For Texans, this is good news. Among the 50 states, Texas has the fourth- highest population of people living with HIV/AIDS. Of these 52,000 individuals, some are from the poorest, most sparsely populated areas such as La Frontera, the region around the Texas-Mexico border, as well as urban areas such as Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston.
For those receiving HIV antiretroviral therapy, resistance is a major reason why these drugs become less active. Already, it is estimated that half of all patients on HIV antiretroviral therapy have developed resistance, which can be transmitted to people who have never been on therapy. When resistance develops, switching to another combination of drugs is necessary to once again suppress viral replication and, ultimately, to prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS.
"HIV drug resistance testing has become the standard of care for evaluation of antiretroviral treatment failure, and is recommended by essentially every HIV management guidelines document. Increasingly, this testing is also employed to assess resistance prior to starting therapy," said Dr. William A. O'Brien, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
One of the unique features of the virco(R)TYPE HIV-1 is that it demonstrates resistance through a continuum which includes lower and upper clinical cutoffs. "Ultimately, this enables doctors to discover treatment options that might otherwise not be identified by conventional resistance tests," says virologist Lee Bacheler, PhD, of Virco Lab, Inc.
Comparable in guiding therapy to a conventional phenotype, 1-3 the virco(R)TYPE HIV-1 is not as expensive and provides faster results. When a doctor orders a virco(R)TYPE HIV-1, it is done in conjunction with a genotype test performed by a clinical laboratory. Results can be obtained in days whereas a conventional phenotype can take weeks. "The sooner we have access to the [test] results, the better -- especially for patients who have complicated treatment histories. Treated patients with uncontrolled virus growth can produce over a billion viral particles each day, wreaking havoc on the body's immune system and resulting in the emergence of more drug resistance. Switching to another regimen that can control the virus dramatically reduces the chance for the virus to develop more resistance," said Dr. O'Brien, "helping to maintain the health of the patient."
Now that virco(R)TYPE HIV-1 has been designated a Category I code by the AMA Editorial Panel, more state Medicaid programs and private insurers are expected to follow suit, according to Ron Sheeley, Professional Affairs Director for Virco, furthering the already popular use of the unique resistance test. Nationwide, the virco(R)TYPE HIV-1 analysis accounts for an estimated 40% of all phenotypic HIV drug resistance tests conducted.
Virco BVBA is a world leader in the field of HIV resistance testing services for clinical practice and clinical studies, advancing research that correlates laboratory testing with clinical management, while offering a wide range of HIV resistance diagnostics. The company applies the latest technologies in molecular biology, medical virology and bio-informatics to develop advanced diagnostic tools that are based on pharmacogenomic principles of individualized patient care. A pioneer in HIV resistance testing, Virco has one of the world's largest repositories of HIV clinical isolates, a database of more than 68,000 phenotypes and more than 203,000 genotypes, and cutting- edge bio-informatics capabilities.
1. GenPheRex: Mazzotta, et al. J AIDS. 2003;32:268-80.
2. Realvirfen: Perez-Elias, et al. Antivir Ther. 2003;8:577-84.
3. PhenGen: Saracino, et al. J AIDS. 2004;37:1587-98.
Contact:
Amy Maggio
ANM Healthcare Solutions
phone: 312 840 9291 -- amy.maggio@mccann.com
Michael J. Tobin
Virco Labs, Inc.
phone: 631 471 9634 -- mtobin2@vrcus.jnj.com
This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.
SOURCE Virco Lab, Inc
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PR051132
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