| Viracept at 625 mg
Pfizer announced in May that the 625 mg formulation of Viracept (nelfinavir) protease inhibitor is finally available. Now people can take two tablets instead of five 250 mg tablets (both dosages taken twice a day). Call 1-888-VIRACEPT for more information.
Two drugs, one pill
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to look at approving two new HIV pill combinations this summer or early fall.
Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumerate) and Emtriva, both from Gilead Sciences, are up for approval as one pill, once a day.
Also up for approval is a once-a-day combination of the nucleosides Ziagen (abacavir sulfate) and Epivir from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Ziagen recently received full (“traditional”) FDA approval. All HIV drugs have been granted accelerated approval to bring them to market faster. Continued study of a drug can later lead to full approval.
Drug interaction
The combination of the protease inhibitor (PI) Invirase with a small dose of the PI Norvir is not affected by the drug Viread, according to a study conducted by the manufacturer of Invirase (Roche). The company examined a twice-daily combination of 1,000 mg Invirase with 100 mg Norvir. Viread has been shown to interact with other HIV drugs. The Roche study with 18 people was presented in a poster at the Fifth International Workshop on Clinical Pharmacology of HIV Therapy, held in Rome in April.
Women with advanced HIV benefit from treatment Good news from the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS). Doctors found that women with advanced disease still benefited from HIV therapy. They reported that women were able to raise their T-cells to more than 200 and lower their viral load below 10,000. WIHS doctors said this six-year study should encourage women with advanced disease who’ve never taken HIV therapy to step up and benefit from medications. They noted, however, that not all of the women were able to go back to more than 200 T-cells. WIHS is a cohort, wherein medical results in a group of people with similar attributes are followed. This analysis looked at 1,132 women. It was recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
George Martinez receives liver transplant May/June 2004 Positively Aware cover boy George Martinez received his liver transplant on May 15. In the two days before his transplant, two livers became available. One would not work for him and the other was “a perfect match. The doctors found that my liver had turned cancerous, so they got it in the nick of time. It was meant to be,” George said. He did not expect his transplant to come this soon. Two weeks post-transplant he felt sore and weak, but much better. “It’s going to be a long battle towards healing.” Congratulations and best wishes can be sent to his e-mail address, Aztec5545@aol.com.
Gonorrhea med changes
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer recommends the use of fluoroquinolones as first-line therapy for gonorrhea in men who have sex with men (MSM) in the U.S., due to a high rate of drug resistance to that class of drugs seen in this group (up to eight times higher than seen in heterosexual men). This is unfortunate because these are the only oral drugs currently available for gonorrhea and are inexpensive.
The new CDC-recommended treatment options for MSM with gonorrhea include the injectable antibiotics ceftriaxone at a dose 125 mg intramuscularly (for anorectal, urogenital and pharyngeal/throat cases) or alternatively spectinomycin, 2 g intramuscularly (not for pharyngeal cases). The CDC urged public health departments to spread the word among clinicians in their communities. Healthcare providers should report treatment failures or resistant gonococcal isolates to the CDC at (404) 639-2059.
Brief IL-2
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists reported that brief, widely-spaced courses of the experimental immune-boosting drug interleukin-2 (IL-2) allowed people with HIV to maintain near normal levels of T- cells for long periods. The group injected themselves subcutaneously with IL-2 twice daily in 5-day-long cycles. Cycles were initiated as often as necessary to maintain T-cells at predetermined, individually tailored amounts. Of the original 77 volunteers, 61 achieved and maintained normal or near normal levels of T-cells for periods ranging from two to 91 months between IL-2 cycles. During the most recent period of study, the average time between cycles was more than three years. (Of the 16 people no longer participating, six experienced CD4+ T cell count declines that did not respond to IL-2 therapy.) The findings were published in the May 1 issue of Blood. |
