Good efficacy for Gilead Sci's ARV combo

US drugmaker Gilead Sciences says that a once-daily treatment regimen of its anti-HIV drugs Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), Emtriva (emtricitabine) and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Sustiva (efavirenz) showed greater efficacy than a twice-daily regimen of GlaxoSmithKline's Combivir (lamivudine/zidovudine) with Sustiva once-daily in treatment-naive patients, according to data which appeared in the January 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study demontrated that a significantly greater percentage of patients taking the Viread and Emtriva regimen achieved and maintained HIV RNA less than 400 copies/ml, with fewer side effects that resulted in study discontinuation, and had a greater increase in CD4 cell counts compared to patients taking a Combivir-based regimen.

Viread and Emtriva are often prescribed together as a fixed-dose combination tablet called Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), which became commercially available after the study began.