HIV guidelines support use of Roche drug

This duel treatment approach is thought to result in better and more prolonged virologic suppression. The guidelines are designed to provide clinicians and other healthcare providers with directions for using antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV-infected adults and adolescents.

Roche and Trimeris describe Fuzeon (enfuvirtide) as the first and only fusion inhibitor for the treatment of HIV. Unlike other HIV drugs that work after HIV has entered the human immune cell, Fuzeon works outside the CD4 cell, blocking HIV from entering the cell. For this reason, it is effective in treatment-experienced patients who have developed resistance to other anti-HIV drugs, though patients may still develop resistance to Fuzeon.

Prior versions of the treatment guidelines have emphasized preservation of immune function and delay of clinical progression as the treatment goals for patients with extensive prior treatment and drug resistance. Now, with the emergence of new active boosted protease inhibitors (PIs) to pair with Fuzeon, the current guidelines for these patients suggest, “in patients with active antiretroviral agents available (e.g. an active ritonavir-boosted PI and enfuvirtide), the goal of therapy is suppression of viremia.”

The evidence the guidelines were based upon includes several recent clinical trials of new boosted PIs in treatment-experienced patients, which demonstrated a better and more prolonged virologic response in those utilizing Fuzeon with these new boosted PIs.