Johnson and Johnson presents Intelence safety and efficacy data

Tibotec Therapeutics, a division of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho Biotech Products, has published new 48-week efficacy and safety data for Intelence (etravirine) as a part of HIV combination therapy.

The company reports that significantly more treatment-experienced HIV-1 patients with documented resistance to protease inhibitors and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) exhibited an undetectable viral load following treatment with Intelence and a background regimen compared to those receiving placebo and a background regimen.

An undetectable viral load was defined as less than 50 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml in the trial.

Richard Haubrich, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, said: “Etravirine is an important new option for treatment-experienced patients with NNRTI resistance and these data build upon the 24-week data that had previously been available.”

The firm advises that the use of Intelence be guided by treatment history and resistance testing, while noting that the use of the compound in conjunction with other antiretroviral agents is associated with an increased probability of treatment response.

In July 2007, Tibotec Pharmaceuticals reported the publication of phase III clinical trial results in the lancet showing the efficacy of Prezista (darunavir) with rotinavir and a background regimen in treatment-experienced HIV-1 patients.