BMS releases data from HIV-1 study

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has released new 96-week data from its Castle study, which randomised 883 treatment-naive patients with HIV-1 to receive Reyataz 300 mg and ritonavir 100 mg (R/r) or lopinavir 400 mg and ritonavir (l/r)100 mg with a once-daily treatment of emtricitabine 200 mg and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg.

It found 74 per cent of the patients receiving the R/r doses finished the study with an undetectable viral load, compared with 48 per cent of those on the l/r combination.

All of the patients involved in the Castle study started with a baseline viral load of equal to or greater than 5,000 copies/ml.

Additionally, Dr Jean-Michel Molina from the Saint Louis Hospital in Paris, France and the University of Paris Diderot, said the findings were consistent with those discovered at 48 weeks.

“When initiating patients on antiretroviral combination therapy, it is important to include medicines with sustained activity against the virus, along with tolerability, to assist in the long-term treatment of patients with HIV-1,” he explained.

In related BMS news, the company recently announced “excellent” financial performance for the third quarter of 2008, stating a net sales growth from continuing operations of 14 per cent.