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

maintained undetectable levels of HIV virus. So far, only drug
combinations using CRIXIVAN as a cornerstone have demonstrated
this level of durable efficacy.
ICAAC also saw the first presentation of a pilot study examining
CRIXIVAN taken twice-daily, as opposed to the original dosing of
every eight hours. Initial results are promising.
1998 In February, results from a study with MSD's new anti-HIV therapy,
the NNRTI known as efavirenz, are presented at the 5th Conference
on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Chicago, II, USA. The
trial shows that after more than one year of treatment in combination
with MSD's protease inhibitor CRIXIVAN (indinavir), 91 percent of
patients had HIV levels below the level of detection.
More than 300 patients are enrolled in Merck Protocol 069, the
largest study planned to date to study convenient, twice-daily dosing
of CRIXIVAN in combination therapy.
As the 12th World AIDS Conference gets underway in Geneva,
Switzerland, recruitment begins for the BID Efficacy and Safety Trial
(BEST), which will also study twice-daily use of CRIXIVAN, still the
most widely prescribed protease inhibitor in the world.