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news.A new study has revealed that Pfizer's HIV drug maraviroc achieved twice the levels of virus suppression compared to other treatments and suggests the drug could work in patients where all other therapies have failed.
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Maraviroc is part of a class of drugs known as CCR5 inhibitors and works in a new way to existing therapies. The drug blocks the virus’ entry to cells T cells, a type of white blood cell, so that the HIV virus can no longer replicate.
The drug was examined in two phase III trials. The first trial that showed 60.4% of those who took maraviroc achieved a level of less than 400 HIV copies per milliliter of blood, compared to 54.7% on a once-daily dose and 31.4% on background therapy.
The second trial found that 61.3% of twice-daily maraviroc patients achieved target HIV levels, compared with 55.5% on once-daily dose and 23.1% treated with other drugs.
“HIV therapies have, for so long, focused on people needing drugs for their initial treatment. But there is a huge and growing number of people who’ve failed on first and second-line therapies, who need other drugs later on”, said Michael Carter, an HIV expert from the UK’s National Aids Manual.