Study recommends Sustiva for initial HAART regimen

A study in the April 29 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine shows that an initial highly active antiretroviral therapy regimen based on Bristol-Myers Squibb's nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor Sustiva is more effective than a regimen containing nucleoside drugs AZT, 3TC, and Ziagen. The study supports a decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in July 2003 to recommend Sustiva and two to three nucleoside drugs as a preferred initial HAART regimen. The Sustiva-based regimen was shown in the study to better reduce HIV viral loads than a regimen containing the three nucleoside medications, which were dosed together in the combination pill Trizivir. Changes in T-cell counts did not differ between patients on the two drug regimens. More than 21% of the study subjects taking Trizivir experienced virologic failure after 32 weeks of treatment compared with 11% of the patients taking a Sustiva-based cocktail.