In recent years, one of the pressing clinical questions facing treaters and patients alike is whether or not a regimen which does not contain a protease inhibitor (PI) is comparable in potency to one which does not. The quest for such regimens comes out of numerous reports of the possibility that lipodystrophy, cardiovascular and bone disease occur more frequently with PIs, as well as the fact that alternatives to PI-containing regimens are generally simpler in terms of pill burden and dosing.
A major gap in clinical knowledge about available HIV treatments was "closed" at the 2003 10th National Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), when the results of the long-awaited "2NN" study demonstrated that nevirapine (Viramune®) is virologically and immunologically equivalent to efavirenz (Sustiva®).
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