New Combo Drug Therapies Prove Effective Against HIV

(Page 2)

In another phase 3 trial, also published in the July 7 issue of The Lancet, an international team led by Dr. Jose Valdez Madruga, of the Centro de Referencia e Treinamento DST/AIDS, in Sao Paolo, Brazil, compared the safety and effectiveness of darunavir against another protease inhibitor, lopinavir (Kaletra), in 595 HIV-positive patients who were also taking the protease inhibitor ritonavir (Norvir).

Forty-eight weeks into treatment, 77 percent of patients taking a darunavir-ritonavir combo had significantly lowered HIV viral load, compared to 68 percent of patients taking lopinavir-ritonavir, the study found. Taken together, darunavir-ritonavir also appeared to do a better job at keeping HIV drug resistance mutations at bay, the researchers reported. The two therapies' safety profiles were similar.

Based on the findings, the researchers called the darunavir-ritonavir combination "a treatment option for this [HIV-infected] population."

More than a million Americans are currently living with HIV. The virus has killed more than 524,000 Americans to date.

More information

To learn about HIV/AIDS, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.