Roche welcomes advent of Fuzeon/darunavir combo

Swiss drug major Roche says that a recent positive opinion by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use on Tibotec's boosted protease inhibitor darunavir is good news for HIV treatment-experienced patients facing drug resistance. Studies have shown that darunavir, when used in combination with Roche's fusion inhibitor Fuzeon (enfuvirtide), can substantially increase the chances of reaching undetectable viral load - the new treatment goal in HIV.

Until recently, it was considered acceptable for treatment-experienced patients to continue to have a detectable viral load (more than 50 copies of viral RNA per ml of blood) so long as their immune system was preserved. However, guidelines issued by major health associations such as the US Department of Health and Human Services and the International AIDS Society (IAS-USA Panel), have recommended that achieving maximum viral suppression should now be the treatment goal in treatment-experienced patients.