HIV fusion inhibitors from Roche and Trimeris feature at ECAATH conference

One of the highlights of the 8th European Conference on Clinical Aspectsand Treatment of HIV Infection, held in Athens, Greece, at the end of October, was new clinical data on a novel class of HIV treatments, the fusion inhibitors. Of particular interest were clinical results indicating that these agents may retain activity against the virus in patients who have been heavily pre-treated with other antiretrovirals.

New data were presented at the conference on two HIV fusion inhibitors, T-20 and follow-up molecule T-1249, which are being co-developed by Switzerland's Roche and US company Trimeris. T-20 is the most advanced project, in Phase III trials, while T-2149 is in Phase I/II.

The new results, in 41 patients with advanced HIV infection who were treated for 48 weeks with T-20 by twice-daily subcutaneous injection, on top of their existing antiretroviral regimen, indicate that 56% of them achieved a 10-fold (>1 log10) reduction in viral load on an as-treated analysis. On an intent-to-treat basis, this level of reduction was seen in 33% of the total study population of 70 individuals. 39% of the 41 patients who completed 48 weeks' treatment saw their HIV RNA levels reduced to below the limit of detection of the assay used in the study (<400 copies/ml).