HIV AIDS News [International Conference on AIDS (12th: 1998: Geneva, Switzerland)]

pushing viral load below the limits of detection (BLD), measured as
less than 500 or 400 copies of RNA/ml depending on the assay
used. Newer assays are much more sensitive, measuring
concentrations as low as 50 copies/ml.
In late June, nevirapine -- the first in a new class of antiretroviral
treatments called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
(NNRTIs) -- is licensed in combination with nucleoside analogues for
HIV patients showing signs of clinical or immunological deterioration.
1997: The year opens with the presentation in March of results from Merck
Protocol 028, a study showing that CRIXIVAN alone or in
combination with AZT reduces by almost two-thirds the risk of
progression to AIDS-defining conditions.
A month later, approval is granted to the NNRTI delavirdine in
combination with other antivirals for treatment of HIV. Also approved
this year is nelfinavir, another protease inhibitor for three-times-aday use in combination therapy.
In September, the New England Journal of Medicine publishes two
landmark studies: Merck Protocol 035, which shows that about 80
percent of patients using CRIXIVAN in triple therapy have
maintained viral load below the limits of detection after a year of
treatment; and ACTG 320, which demonstrates that CRIXIVAN in
triple therapy cuts the risk of AIDS-related infections and deaths by
approximately half compared to the combination of AZT and 3TC.
This publication is followed by a presentation of 76-week data from
Protocol 035 at the 37th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial
Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), which shows that about 80
percent of patients on CRIXIVAN-based triple therapy still