Business Wire - September 14, 2000
ViroLogic and Merck will conduct a series of physician education meetings that will feature prominent researchers and clinicians on HIV therapy and drug resistance, and will educate physicians about the latest scientific and clinical data in the field.
"Drug resistance testing is becoming the standard of care in HIV therapy management, and we expect that physicians will seek additional information on the role of these tests in guiding therapy," said Dr. Nicholas Hellmann, Vice President of Clinical Research at ViroLogic, which markets the PhenoSense(TM) HIV drug resistance test. "These educational programs will facilitate better physician understanding of the use of drug resistance testing to design individualized treatment regimens for patients."
So far this year, both the Department of Health and Human Services and the International AIDS Society-USA have issued guidelines recommending the use of drug resistance testing in the routine care of HIV patients.
In addition, ViroLogic and Merck will collaborate to educate physicians on the use of resistance testing in guiding boosted protease inhibitor (PI) combination therapy. Numerous investigators are currently evaluating the clinical effects of boosted PI combinations, as recent studies have shown that these combinations provide higher drug levels of PIs in treatment experienced patients. As part of the collaboration, the two companies will develop a methodology to report boosted PI combinations on ViroLogic's PhenoSense(TM) HIV test reports.
About ViroLogic
ViroLogic is a biotechnology company developing and marketing innovative products to guide and improve treatment of viral diseases. The Company's proprietary technology, called PhenoSense(TM), tests for drug resistance and susceptibility in viruses that cause serious diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
ViroLogic's first product, PhenoSense HIV, is a test that directly and quantitatively measures resistance of a patient's HIV to antiviral drugs. The test results provide physicians with important information to help select appropriate drugs for their HIV patients. The Company is also developing PhenoSense products for other viral diseases and intends to use the results of its PhenoSense tests and other clinical data to develop its Therapy Guidance System(TM) (TGS(TM)), an interactive database to help physicians guide patient therapy.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, whether PhenoSense(TM) testing will achieve market acceptance, whether payers will authorize reimbursement for our products, whether we will be able to expand our sales and marketing capabilities, whether we encounter problems or delays in automating our process, whether we successfully introduce new products using our PhenoSense(TM) technology, whether intellectual property underlying our PhenoSense(TM) technology is adequate, whether we are able to build brand loyalty, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in our final Prospectus that is part of our Registration Statement on Form S-1, as declared effective by the SEC on May 1, 2000 (File No. 333-30896).
CONTACT: ViroLogic, Inc. Sidney Ho, Director of Public Affairs (650) 635-1100, Ext. 206 sho@virologic.com www.virologic.com
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