Glaxo Wellcome Says Aprenavir
Drug Might Help Immune
System
Dow Jones Newswires
LONDON -- U.K. pharmaceutical giant Glaxo
Wellcome PLC (GLX) said Tuesday that its new
protease inhibitor amprenavir may be effective in helping
the recovery of immune systems in HIV patients.
Glaxo is presenting data to the 12th World AIDS
Conference in Geneva, which suggests that amprenavir,
when used in combination with its new reverse
transcriptase inhibitor abacavir, suppresses viral load
and may support "immune reconstitution."
Other data also suggests that amprenavir may have a
unique resistance profile.
The question of whether the immune system can be
restored following its deterioration is key to HIV
patients, as the virus progressively damages the body's
immune system.
A Swiss study involving the use of an
amprenavir/abacavir combination found that after 48
weeks of treatment, viral load was undetectable in eight
of the nine patients tested.
By comparing the differences in the ratio of CD4 cells to
CD8 cells in the lymph nodes at the beginning of the trial
with the equivalent ratio after 48 weeks, the data
suggested the abnormal activation of the immune system
in the lymph nodes induced by HIV "may have returned
to nearly normal levels."
Pierre-Alexandre Bart, who conducted the study, said
the data raises the possibility that long-term viral
suppression allows the immune system to begin repairing
the damage caused by HIV infection.
"While these are preliminary data and further studies are
needed, the positive response seen by the
abacavir/amprenavir combination is an encouraging
indication that this might be possible," he said.
At 0918 GMT, Glaxo shares were down 18 pence at
1,824 pence, a 1.0% fall, but the blue-chip FTSE-100
index, in which Glaxo has a heavy weighting, was off
0.6%, or 32.9 points, at 5851.6 points.
-By Michael Reid; 44-171-832-8163;
-Michael.Reid@cor.dowjones.com |
