|
My topsecret magic formula that was handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai & misplaced for thousands of years still gives me a target for the next upward move of $61-62ish. Regarding the Vertex data, while having lunch, I realized that it would be wrong not to correct some of the interpretations recently posted on this thread. the reason is obvious - that there are HIV+ people who read & also contribute to this thread. First, the Vertex data presented over the past couple days showing a 70% response rate is not comparable to recent Agouron data showing a much higher response rate. the AGPH data shows Viracept's effectiveness after the patients have been on it much longer, and so far, the data for PI's indicates that until viral resistance sets in, the effectiveness increases over time. In addition, although patients in the Vertex sample can be naive in relation to "this drug or that drug", the virus (plural) in that patient's body can be quite different than the virus that generated Agouron data for the same length of time on therapy. this is because the virus is changing,& the nature of transmitted virus is changing, so even though a patient may be naive to drug A,B, etc., the virus in his/her body may not be.I bring this up because there are likely HIV+ patients who may have become unhappy at some interpretations of the Vertex data, so although it isn't perfect, it is a hell of a lot better than some "versions" have portrayed. In addition, it is important to realize that the dosing for the Vertex drug is still not optimized, so you should expect improvements in efficacy going forward. I present this not to make a positive or negative case regarding AGPH or Vertex, but just kind of like a public service. |
