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

s 1IIL
For Immediate Release O MSD
Contacts: Janet Skidmore Kelley Dougherty
[phone] [phone]
During the 12th World AIDS Conference:
Hotel Des Bergues
[phone]
CRIXIVANTM IN SUMMARY
Key Facts and Clinical Trial Results
CRIXIVANTM* (indinavir), one of the most durable and potent compounds
in the class of drugs known as protease inhibitors, has become a cornerstone of
therapy in the treatment of HIV disease and AIDS. Since its introduction in
1996, CRIXIVAN has become the most widely prescribed protease inhibitor in
the world. CRIXIVAN has demonstrated a significant impact on reducing
disease progression in multiple studies among both antiretroviral-therapy naive
and antiretroviral-therapy experienced people with a broad range of CD4 cell
counts.
Protease inhibitors, like CRIXIVAN, have proven themselves to be
the most powerful pharmaceutical weapons to date in the war against HIV/AIDS
and, as a result, have fundamentally changed HIV-treatment strategy. New data
continue to provide further evidence that, with a protease inhibitor as potent as
CRIXIVAN in combination therapy, the treatment of HIV disease and AIDS may
become more manageable over the long-term. International guidelines
published last year support early, aggressive combination antiretroviral therapy

with a potent protease inhibitor, such as CRIXIVAN, as "preferred" strategy.

* CRIXIVAN is a trademark of Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station New Jersey, USA