SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct 31, 2000 (BW HealthWire) -- ViroLogic, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGC) today announced a research agreement with Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., to provide drug resistance testing services in the Phase III clinical program involving the investigational anti-HIV drug, T-20, which is being co-developed by Roche and Trimeris, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMS). ViroLogic's drug resistance technology, including its phenotypic drug susceptibility test, PhenoSense(TM)HIV, will be used to determine HIV resistance to currently approved antiretroviral drugs.
PhenoSense HIV, ViroLogic's first product, is a test that directly and quantitatively measures resistance of a patient's HIV to antiretroviral drugs. In the T-20 trial, all patients will undergo a range of evaluations, including being tested with PhenoSense HIV to help physicians guide their next course of therapy. Other evaluations will include viral genotype, using ViroLogic's GeneSeq(TM) HIV test, and antiretroviral treatment history. T-20 will then be added to the regimens of a subset of patients and the results of the two groups will be compared.
"We are very pleased that Roche and Trimeris are taking advantage of ViroLogic's technology in their clinical development efforts," said Dr. Nicholas Hellmann, Vice President of Clinical Research at ViroLogic. "We continue to look forward to working with pharmaceutical companies to help evaluate promising new drug candidates against HIV."
T-20 is the first member of a new class of investigational anti-HIV compounds known as fusion inhibitors. Unlike existing AIDS drugs that work inside the cell and target viral enzymes involved in the replication of the virus, T-20 inhibits fusion of HIV with host cells before the virus enters the cell and begins its replication process. Earlier this month, Roche and Trimeris announced that T-20 is entering Phase III clinical trials. One pivotal study will be initiated in North, Central and South America; a second in Europe and Australia. |
