AIDS: Double risk of failure with Epzicom

People with HIV who have high concentrations of virus in the blood and are treated with the cocktail of antiretroviral Epzicom are twice as likely to develop AIDS than those treated with concurrent treatment Truvada, according to a study.

This clinical study was conducted among 1858 persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of antiretroviral drugs cocktails, taken daily as tablets, as initial therapy against HIV-1 infection.

Two cocktails were tested. The first was Epzicom, a combination of antiretroviral abacavir (Ziagen) and Epivir (3TC) sold by the British laboratory GlaxoSmithKline. The second one was Truvada of the U.S. pharmaceutical company Gilead Science. Truvada consists of Sustiva (efavirenz) or Reyataz (atazanavir) with Norvir (ritonavir).

Those who were treated with Epzicom suffered twice as many immune defects than those who took the Truvada after a 60 weeks of treatment, say the authors of the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine on December 3.

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