An extended release formulation breaks through by Chael Needle Based on results from the VERxVE study, the FDA recently approved Viramune XR for use in antiretroviral combination therapy to treat HIV-1 infection in adults. “XR” stands for “extended release,” offering patients a one 400mg pill, once-daily dosing option. Until now, Boehringer Ingelheim, makers of Viramune (nevirapine), had offered an immediate-release (IR), 200mg form of the drug with a twice-daily dosing. “Development of the extended-release formulation began in 2004 to provide a once-a-day preparation that was [...]

Researchers explore the dangers of hepatitis B and HIV coinfection by Larry Buhl New research suggests people with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection have twice the risk of dying from liver-related diseases as people with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), including those coinfected with HIV. The research was part of the long-running Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) and presented at the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in February in Boston. The study also found that the introduction of tenofovir (found in [...]

LifeGuide [Hep Talk] New HCV Meds Are on the Horizon, but Affordability May Still Remain a Challenge by Larry Buhl This column has covered several antiviral meds in the pipeline to treat hepatitis C, the most common cause of chronic liver disease, liver cancer, and liver transplantation in the U.S. When these meds become available they promise improved health-related quality of life and reduced morbidity and mortality, provided they are taken as recommended. And provided patients can afford them. That’s a big problem given their [...]

LifeGuide [Treatment Horizons] Dr. C. Everett Koop Revisits a Time When Neither Treatment nor Testing Existed by Chael Needle Knowing he had to face the micromanaging tendencies and political resistance of cabinet members overseeing his work, then-U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop played a trick when presenting his first AIDS report in 1986. He knew the report would be printed as a brochure on cheap paper, as two to three million copies were envisioned. “But, I also ordered one thousand copies printed on the best [...]

LifeGuide [Treatment Horizons] Therapeutic Vaccines May Change the Treatment Landscape for the Better by Jeannie Gibbs Clinical development of HIV therapeutic vaccine candidate, Vacc-4x, will continue after further analysis of Phase IIb study data revealed a significant viral load decrease in patients on the Vacc-4x treatment arm. Even more substantial was the discovery that viral load set points of these patients did not rebound to pre-HAART levels, which usually occurs after antiretroviral therapy (ART) failure. Results of previous studies of Vacc-4x had been so promising [...]

Hep C Is Manageable—If You Know the Ins and Outs by Larry Buhl You’ve been diagnosed with Hepatitis C. Now what? First, don’t panic. Doctors agree a Hep C diagnosis is not a death sentence. But the virus does require some lifestyle changes and careful monitoring to avoid chronic liver disease. There are a lot of misconceptions in the general public about hepatitis C. We spoke with Lisa Oldson, M.D., an internal medicine physician and medical director for the Analyte Physicians Group in Chicago. Dr. [...]

The Population Council’s lead microbicide candidate moves forward by Chael Needle How do you assemble a microbicide candidate with anti-HIV and other properties? In some cases, much like one of those Mission Impossible-type movies where the leader goes around recruiting one gal who’s good at safecracking, another who is expert at acrobatic feats, and someone who is good behind the wheel, and so on. Except here, instead of Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, and Thandie Newton, the “team” consists of MIV-150, zinc acetate, and a carrageenan [...]

While federal efforts move forward, hepatitis prevention remains unfunded by Larry Buhl During the seemingly interminable debate over health insurance reform, other health legislation was quietly making its way through Congress. Perhaps it was too quiet. In October, 2009 Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) introduced the bipartisan Viral Hepatitis and Liver Cancer Control and Prevention Act to address the epidemic of hepatitis B and C in the U.S. The bill, with a price tag of $90 million, would have increased the ability of the Centers for [...]

A second hepatitis C antiviral—boceprevir—moves closer to approval

A Treatment for Lipodystrophy-Related Excessive Abdominal Fat Comes of Age by Chael Needle HIV-associated lipodystrophy, abnormalities in metabolism and/or distribution of fat in those living with HIV/AIDS on antiretrovirals, sometimes is characterized by excess abdominal fat. The FDA recently approved a new drug, Egrifta (tesamorelin for injection), that has been shown to reduce excess abdominal fat associated with lipodystrophy in HIV-positive patients. The first and only treatment indicated for this condition, Egrifta is a synthetic analogue of growth hormone releasing factor that acts on the [...]