Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Miami Herald - Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Fred Tasker, ftasker@herald.com
At every AIDS conference, "Big Pharma," as the international drug companies are called, announces a promising new drug or two. And other researchers hold sessions on how HIV has mutated, developing resistance to some drugs.
"It's true," says Jim Thommes, medical director for the drug company Roche. "You have to be strategic in your thinking. If this doesn't work, what's my next move?"
At the 2002 AIDS conference in Barcelona, Roche, with Trimeris, introduced the hot new drug, Fuzeon. In a new class of drugs called fusion inhibitors, it was touted as a powerful new ally of patients who had developed resistance to many older drugs.
At this year's conference there is no hot new drug. But researchers say they're not discouraged. The latest news about Fuzeon is mostly good. Studies released here say a majority of patients using Fuzeon for up to 96 weeks benefited, without significant side effects. And four out of five of those were patients who had resistance to at least one other anti-HIV drug.
Patients who started taking Fuzeon later in their treatment, however, fared less well.
"We don't know how long it will last," said Dr. Corklin Steinhart, senior attending physician at Mercy Hospital in Miami, who helped run the trials.
"Fuzeon will run its course like any other drug. But if you take it right, you will buy yourself a lot of time -- five or six years."
The German drug giant Boehringer Ingelheim announced promising early human tests on Tipranavir, a new entry in the protease inhibitor drug class. But it's still years away.
Another advance touted is simpler drug regimens. Since the mid-1990s, "cocktail" therapy for HIV has been popular, combining several drugs to give more potent effects than any single pill.
Unfortunately, for some patients it has meant taking as many as 50 pills a day, in proper order and timing. Compliance rates are often low.
Hope for a simpler regimen comes with a new combination pill of Viread/Emtriva, by Gilead Sciences.
"For some patients, the new Gilead combination pill will allow one of the first complete HIV treatment regimens comprised of just two pills, taken once a day," says Joe Steele, vice president for commercial development for Gilead Sciences.
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