Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday September 29 3:12 PM EDT
The combination of nevirapine -- a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) -- with the older AIDS drugs AZT and ddI (didanosine) also boosted immune system levels, the researchers said.
"These results are promising because a majority of study participants showed a sustained increase in CD4 cells, as well as potent viral load reductions from an average of 500,000 copies to below the limit of detection," Stefano Vella of the Instituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome said.
Vella's group presented their findings at the 37th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Toronto.
Earlier research has found similar effects for nevirapine, marketed under the name Viramune.
Viramune was the first NNRTI to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is marketed by Columbus, Ohio-based Roxane Laboratories and was developed by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc.
AZT is made by Glaxo-Wellcome and ddI by Bristol Myers Squibb.
In other AIDS news, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday it had approved the first pill that combines AZT and another popular AIDS drug -- Glaxo Wellcome's Combivir.
Combivir consists of both AZT, as well as lamivudine, also known as 3TC.
People infected with HIV now have to take more than a dozen pills a day, at regimented times. Many complain that the schedule is hard to stick to.
"Combining these two drugs, which are commonly prescribed with one another, into one tablet could decrease the number of pills people with HIV have to take daily," the FDA said in a statement.
The Combivir tablet contains 300 milligrams of AZT, sold as Retrovir, and 150 milligrams of lamivudine, sold as Epivir.
The drugs all attack the HIV virus at different stages in its cycle of replication.
The drugs can make people sick and the FDA pointed out that Combivir had the same adverse side effects as the two drugs used alone -- nausea, diarrhea, anemia, low white blood cell count and effects on the pancreas and nerves in the hands and feet.
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