The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7185 p197-203
16 February 2002

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Abbott Laboratories (abbott.com)
41st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (www.asmusa.org/mtgsrc/icaac.htm)

Patients remain resistance-free for up to two years on HIV combination

Patients with human immunodeficiency virus taking the combination preparation Kaletra (lopinavir and ritonavir) remain resistance-free for up to 96-weeks, a phase III study shows.

The study also shows that patients treated with Kaletra have a lower level of resistance than those treated with nelfinavir.

American researchers randomly assigned 653 HIV-treatment naive patients to receive either Kaletra or nelfinavir, in combination with the nucleoside analogues stavudine and lamivudine.

Patients with detectable HIV RNA levels between weeks 24 and 96 of treatment were identified. Of 51 patients treated with Keletra, none demonstrated resistance to lopinavir, whereas 41 out of 96 patients treated with nelfinavir demonstrated resistance to it.

In addition, the researchers say that resistance to lamivudine was greater in patients treated with nelfinavir than in patients treated with Kaletra.

The data, presented at the 41st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in December 2001, was highlighted recently by the manufacturer of Kaletra, Abbott Laboratories, as part of a six-month review.

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