An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
July 1st, 2010
RFA-AI-10-009, HIV Cure, and “Berlin Patient” Update
Interesting “RFA” (Request for Application, #RFA-AI-10-009) from Bethesda: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), encourage grant applications from institutions/organizations to address the problem of HIV-1 persistence in HIV-1-infected persons treated with suppressive antiretroviral drug regimens… The goal of this initiative […]
April 14th, 2010
Maraviroc Rarely Used for Treatment-Naive Patients
Over in Journal of Infectious Diseases, the MERIT study was recently published (with Chuck Hicks’ Journal Watch summary here), demonstrating that maraviroc is non-inferior to efavirenz — provided that the enhanced-sensitivity tropism test is used to select appropriate candidates. (The MERIT study began in 2004-5. Don’t think I’ll ever forget that, since the investigator meeting overlapped […]
February 28th, 2010
CROI 2010 Recap: No Obvious Blockbusters, But …
Ok, I’ll admit it — I didn’t see any studies presented at CROI this year that will immediately transform HIV care on a day-to-day basis. Nothing that will alter practice right now. Nothing like last year’s NA-ACCORD, or 2008’s surprising DAD study, or 2007’s raltegravir studies, to name a few recent examples. (All subsequently published, of course — links are to […]
January 27th, 2010
No Vicriviroc — Yet
Apparently, Merck — taking over for Schering-Plough — will not seek approval for vicriviroc in treatment-experienced patients: In two Phase III studies in this patient population, vicriviroc did not meet the primary efficacy endpoint. These studies enrolled a high percentage of patients who had three or more active drugs in their optimized background therapy regimen. The report […]