Lamivudine/Zidovudine Combination Promising

As reported in the Marketletter last week, Phase II/III trials of a combination of Glaxo/BioChem Pharma's lamivudine and Wellcome's Retrovir (zidovudine) reveal that the two drugs have a more potent effect on surrogate markers of HIV disease than either drug alone or a combination of zidovudine and and Hoffmann-La Roche's Hivid (zalcitabine).

Two new North American studies were presented at the 2nd National Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related Infections in Washington DC, and the updated results of two earlier European trials were also reported.

Joseph Eron of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported the results of study NUCA 3001, involving 364 patients with mostly (81%) asymptomatic infection who had previously received less than four weeks of zidovudine therapy. The trial compared the combination of high-dose lamivudine (300mg twice-a-day) plus zidovudine (200mg three times daily) to a low-dose (150mg twice-daily) combination, lamivudine alone or zidovudine alone.