"Robust" anti-HIV activity in AG1343 trial. (HIV protease inhibitor)

The promising new HIV protease inhibitor AG1343 is effective and well tolerated at all doses studied in Phase II clinical trials.

The drug, developed by Agouron Pharmaceuticals and Japan Tobacco Inc. under the trade name Viracept, has been the subject of intense interest since the 1994 2nd National Conference on Human Retroviruses. It was announced at that conference that some patients receiving the drug in early clinical trials had a 94 percent reduction in viral burden.

The new studies show that after receiving AG1343 some patients' plasma HIV RNA became undetectable (below the 500 copies/ml limit of the test used) with mean maximum decreases of 1.4 to 1.7 logs. …