Schering-Plough sees vicriviroc demonstrate sustained HIV viral suppression

Schering-Plough has reported phase II study results showing that its investigational CCR5 antagonist vicriviroc demonstrated potent and sustained viral suppression through 48 weeks of therapy in treatment experienced HIV-infected patients.

Presented at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the pharmaceutical company highlighted the study results for when vicriviroc was administered once daily in combination with an optimised ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor.

Barry S Zingman, medical director of the Aids Centre at the Montefiore Medical Centre, highlighted that when vicriviroc was added to an optimised background therapy (OBT) it provided “significant and durable” viral suppression compared to OBT alone.

“Importantly, this benefit of vicriviroc was observed regardless of the number of active HIV drugs in a patient’s background therapy,” he added.

Vicriviroc is a next-generation extracellular inhibitor of HIV infection designed to block entry of infectious virions into uninfected CD4 cells via antagonism of the CCR5 receptor.

Schering-Plough has stated that the results support the selection of a 30mg once-daily vicriviroc dose for use in ongoing phase III clinical studies.

Also this week, Schering-Plough has reported that Asmanex (mometasone furoate inhalation powder) is a key treatment option for children aged four to 11 with asthma.