Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Wall Street Journal - April 19, 2002
Vanessa Fuhrmans, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
The drug, called T-20, is the most advanced of a new class of AIDS treatments called fusion inhibitors. Though researchers say it isn't a panacea for the growing problem of drug resistance among AIDS patients, it could be beneficial to some who no longer respond to other medicines.
In a clinical study involving 491 patients, the companies said that the blood of patients who took T-20 in combination with other AIDS drugs for 24 weeks showed a reduction in the amount of the virus that causes AIDS that, on average, was about tenfold that of those who received the established set of treatments without T-20. All of the patients were in advanced stages of the disease and most had shown a resistance to established AIDS treatments. Two-thirds of the group were given T-20 with the other drugs.
Though researchers are exploring the use of fusion inhibitors on several fronts, the project run by Roche and Trimeris, a small drug developer based in Durham, North Carolina, is the furthest along in clinical development. Most existing drugs block HIV, the human immune-deficiency virus that causes AIDS, from reproducing once it has infected white blood cells.
Write to Vanessa Fuhrmans at vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com
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