Treatments Updates

Trizivir
Thank you to Nelson Vergel for drawing our attention to this press release. Once the drug becomes available in the UK we will bring you further information.

Trizivir, a new product that combines three anti-HIV medicines into one single tablet, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This marks an important advance for dosing of combination drug regimens. Patients for whom Trizivir is prescribed will now be able to take this three-drug HIV medicine as one tablet twice a day.

Trizivir can be taken as one tablet in the morning and one tablet in the evening without regard to food or water intake.

Trizivir must not be used by patients who have previously experienced a hypersensitivity reaction to Abacavir, which is a medicine in Trizivir and Ziagen. The most serious adverse event associated with abacavir is a hypersensitivity reaction that can be life threatening and has been fatal in some cases. (List of symptoms omitted)

“There are two main benefits of Trizivir. The first is it provides simplification of dosing. So they're getting three anti-retroviral medicines in a single tablet taken twice a day. The second benefit is that you can take that single tablet without any restrictions around food or water. So you don't have to take it with a meal, you can take it with a meal if you want to, and you don't have to drink volumes of water while you're on this medicine,'' said Amy Keller, International Project Team Leader for Trizivir at Glaxo Wellcome.

Complete prescribing information for Trizivir, Ziagen, Combivir, Epivir, Retrovir and Agenerase, can be found at www.treathiv.com
For additional information on Ziagen, please go to www.ziagen.com
For additional information on Agenerase, please go to www.agenerase.com

SOURCE: Glaxo Wellcome

New VIDEX® EC:
designed to help individuals stick to HIV treatment schedule.
Bristol-Myers Squibb UK has launched VIDEX (didanosine, ddl) Enteric Coated capsules, the first and only, one capsule, once daily treatment for use in HIV combination therapy.
New VIDEX EC has been developed to offer adherence advantages and improved tolerability, whilst retaining VIDEX’s resistance profile and flexibility in prescribing for physicians. Adherence, resistance and tolerability are three of the essential elements of successful HIV treatment.
Those patients taking Videx will now only need to take one single capsule of VIDEX EC once a day instead of the current two tablets of VIDEX which are normally dissolved in water. This is a significant development for patients being treated for HIV, as they are often required to take up to 20 pills every day.
VIDEX EC are gastro-resistant capsules containing enteric coated beadlets of didanosine. The novel formulation of VIDEX EC protects it from stomach acid and there is therefore no need for the buffer used in the previous formulation. This formulation is designed to improve tolerability with no buffer related side-effects or buffer related drug interactions.’ This means VIDEX EC can now be taken with indinavir.

“With one in four struggling to adhere to complex multi-drug regimens, anything which makes the drugs easier to take, or improves tolerability, is very welcome,” said Nick Partridge, Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust.