Recent concerns about the potency of nevirapine in people with high viral load may be dispelled after Boehringer-Ingelheim presented a preliminary analysis of its BI 1090 study in Lisbon yesterday.
Brian Pollard of Boehringer-Ingelheim reported on 73 individuals randomised to receive AZT/3TC/nevirapine in the international study. The patients had a mean viral load of 150,000 copies and mean CD4 count of 82 on entry to the study. After 48 weeks follow-up, 49% of the nevirapine group still had viral load below 50 copies, and in the sub-set of individuals with viral load greater than 500,000 copies at baseline, 54% of the nevirapine group had viral load below 50 at week 48.
The nevirapine arm was compared with individuals randomised to receive AZT/3TC, but unlike the Atlantic study, BI 1090 did not compare a nevirapine-containing regimen with a protease-containing regimen.
BI 1090 was reported as an unscheduled late-breaker at the Seventh European Conference on Clinical Aspects and Treatment of HIV Infection, Lisbon, October 23-27 1999.