HIV and ID Observations

October 17th, 2012

It’s Time to Tell Our Patients to Stop Their Vitamin Supplements

Over in JAMA, there’s a large study out today that (yet again) failed to demonstrate a benefit of vitamins. Over 3000 patients with HIV in Tanzania were randomized to receive either high-dose or standard-dose multivitamin supplementation, in addition to “HAART” (ugh). Though the study was planned for 24 months, it was stopped early by the Data Safety […]

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October 16th, 2012

Some Liver Meeting “Wow!” Studies Start to Emerge

The Liver Meeting, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, does not take place until November 9-13, in Boston. But if you want a preview, a couple of notable studies have already been “announced” in the press. Specifically, there’s this: Abbott today announced initial results from “Aviator,” a phase 2b study of its interferon-free, […]

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September 1st, 2012

CROI 2013: March 3-7, Atlanta

The title says it all. Abstract deadline is October 9. Photo below is completely irrelevant.

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August 31st, 2012

“PEARLS” Study a Massive, Impressive Accomplishment

One of the most frequent criticisms of randomized clinical trials of HIV therapy is that certain patient groups — in particular gay men — are over represented compared to the HIV population as a whole. For example, in the recently published and presented clinical trials of the Quad and dolutegravir, women accounted for < 20% of […]

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August 25th, 2012

On HCV, These Questions Three

In the fastest-moving area of ID drug development, answers are eagerly sought to the following questions three: What does the bad news on BMS-986094 — formerly INX-189 — mean for other investigational HCV nucleotides? Severe cardiotoxicity, fatal in one case, has ended the drug’s development. Importantly, nothing similar has thus far been observed  with the structurally-similar IDX184, but that drug […]

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August 1st, 2012

Really Rapid Review — 2012 International AIDS Conference, Washington, DC

Last week’s International AIDS Conference in Washington got plenty of media attention, mostly because it was the first time in umpteen years that it was held in the United States, the delay between meetings due to our absurd (and now repealed) immigration laws regarding HIV. (Quick trivia question — where was the conference supposed to be […]

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June 17th, 2012

For Inpatients, HIV Medication Errors Common — Then Promptly Corrected

Several papers have shown that antiretrovirals may be incorrectly prescribed for hospitalized patients with HIV. How do they do at Johns Hopkins — the site of one of the best comprehensive HIV programs in the country (and perennial US News and World Report #1 Hospital in the Universe)? As described in a new CID paper, investigators reviewed ART […]

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June 13th, 2012

Questions About HIV Cure, and a Very Funny Quote

The single case of HIV cure following allogeneic bone marrow transplant is in the news again, this time because of data just presented at “The International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Virus Drug Resistance and Curative Strategies” (formerly known as the “HIV Resistance Workshop” — how’s that for rebranding?). I’m not at the meeting, which is too […]

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June 8th, 2012

SPARTAN: Two-Drug, NRTI-Sparing Strategies Continue to Disappoint

Just published is the cleverly named “SPARTAN” study — spartan because it leaves out both NRTIs and ritonavir — and the results are very interesting. Ninety-three treatment-naive HIV-positive study subjects were randomized 2:1 to receive either a two-drug regimen of raltegravir 400 mg BID + atazanavir 300 mg BID, or a standard regimen of TDF/FTC + boosted atazanavir. […]

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April 17th, 2012

EASL Starts Tomorrow — Get Ready for the HCV Treatment Deluge

I can’t think of a single upcoming scientific meeting in ID that’s likely to be more “game changing”  — sorry for the tired metaphor — than the 47th European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) meeting, which starts tomorrow in Barcelona. As a hint of what’s to come, earlier this month Abbott released these […]

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