The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7206 p45
13 July 2002

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AIDS 2002 Conference (www.aids2002.org)

Simpler strategies still needed in HIV

A professor of medicine has called for the development of simpler, less toxic HIV drug strategies that include protease inhibitors.

Professor Robert Murphy, director of HIV/AIDS, Northwestern University, Chicago, said that therapies based on protease inhibitors (PIs), though potent and effective, were complex and associated with frequent adverse events that could affect patient compliance and quality of life.

Speaking at the recent AIDS conference in Barcelona, Professor Murphy pointed out that most currently available protease inhibitors could produce gastrointestinal side effects, liver problems and an adverse lipid profile.

These factors increased the risk of a patient being unable to tolerate or adhere to therapy. There was increasing concern that failure of an initial PI-containing regimen could jeopardise response to subsequent therapy because of the emergence of cross-resistant viruses, he explained.