HIV and ID Observations

April 16th, 2017

Mark Wainberg and the Enduring Importance of 3TC

Last week, the HIV/ID research world lost one of its leaders and pioneers when Dr. Mark Wainberg unexpectedly died. An astute, thoughtful virologist — and a warm, engaging person — he led the HIV research program at McGill University in Montreal for years, contributing to the field both through his research and patient advocacy. A strong voice […]

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October 25th, 2013

GARDEL Two-Active-Drug Study Not a Game-Changer, but Might Be a Paradigm-Shifter

Don’t look now, but a two-drug lamivudine (3TC) + LPV/r strategy did just as well as a standard three-drug regimen of two NRTIs + LPV/r. Better, actually, since virologic outcomes were the same and the two-drug regimen had fewer side effects. Here are the key details about the GARDEL study, presented just this week by Pedro […]

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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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July 16th, 2012

Sizzling Summer Serratias

Several ID/HIV items to contemplate as the heat really kicks in here in the torrid USA: TDF/FTC approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis. The challenging issues of defining the best candidates for this strategy — and finding the providers to prescribe it — still remain, but FDA approval should at least help justify insurance coverage if clinicians choose […]

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January 22nd, 2012

Generic Lamivudine Has Arrived

An e-mail from a patient last week: Just got refills. Epivir is now generic???  Refill is simply labeled Lamivudine Tablets by Aurobindo Pharma USA, Inc …but made in India.  Should I be concerned about that??? John I told John (not his real name) not to be concerned — he is merely substituting the generic for the […]

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June 13th, 2011

More on Generic Antiretrovirals …

In the recent post on the approval of generic Combivir — and the lack of availability of generic Epivir (lamivudine, 3TC), which was both anticipated and likely to be more useful — I speculated there were several possible causes of this surprising turn of events. But ultimately I concluded, “In sum, the real reason there’s no generic […]

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May 26th, 2011

Surprise! It’s Generic Combivir!

After last week’s unveiling of the new NNRTI rilpivirine, now we have a different kind of drug approval from the FDA: FDA granted approval for a generic formulation fixed dose combination of lamivudine and zidovudine tablets, 150 mg/300 mg, two nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of […]

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