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

Good Tolerability
This high level of efficacy against HIV is coupled with low levels of sideeffects such as severe rash, which are regularly seen in patients taking other
NNRTIs. Its long terminal half-life allows simple once-daily dosing of efavirenz,
an important convenience in a field where complex drug regimens have hindered
patients' ability to treat their disease effectively.
International guidelines stress the need for aggressive early treatment of
HIV. "It is clear that the core aim of treatment is to reduce levels of HIV in the
bloodstream to undetectable levels," said Robin Isaacs, M.D., associate director
of Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories, New Jersey, USA. "The
aim with efavirenz is to examine the simplest yet most effective therapeutic
regimens that would achieve this aim."
CRIXlVAN/efavirenz Combinations
To that end, recent studies have focused on dual combinations of
efavirenz with the potent, durable and highly specific protease inhibitor
CRIXIVAN (indinavir).
Results from Cohort IV of DMP 266-003, from which updated 72-week
data will be presented during the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva, show
that CRIXIVAN + efavirenz is a highly effective combination against HIV. Data
presented at the Fifth Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic
Infections earlier this year showed that after 60 weeks of treatment with
CRIXIVAN 1000 mg q8h (three-times-a-day) and efavirenz 600 mg once-daily,
89 percent of the 59 patients in the study had undetectable levels of HIV virus in
the bloodstream (<400 RNA copies/ml).