This article is the first part of a two-part interview with Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, senior scientific consultant for the Foundation for AIDS Research, on the Foundation’s efforts toward a cure for HIV. Part 1 discusses the possibility of a cure and why it is necessary. Part 2 discusses the Foundation’s cure research and some promising avenues toward a cure.

When it was founded in 1985 by actress Elizabeth Taylor and scientist Mathilde Krim, the purpose of the Foundation…

Interim results from a Phase 2 clinical trial show that 74 percent of HIV-positive participants taking Incivek, in combination with peginterferon-alfa and ribavirin, had undetectable hepatitis C virus levels after 24 weeks of treatment, compared to 55 percent of participants taking peginterferon-alfa and ribavirin alone.

The response rate is similar to that reported last month for Victrelis (boceprevir) in a Phase 2 clinical trial in people with HIV (see related AIDS Beacon news).

“As HIV treatments have…

Results of a recent study show that the 10-year survival rates for children born with HIV who receive highly active antiretroviral therapy are more than double those for children who do not. As a result, survival rates have improved dramatically over the past two decades.

Most (84 percent) of the children in the study who did not survive were born before 1994, at least three years before highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) became widely available.

“As antiretroviral utilization milestones were…

Interim results from an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial indicate that the hepatitis C drug Victrelis, in combination with peginterferon and ribavirin, resulted in twice as many HIV-positive patients achieving undetectable hepatitis C virus levels than peginterferon and ribavirin alone.

“We are encouraged by these interim results with Victrelis in combination therapy in this difficult-to-treat patient population,” said Dr. Roger Pomerantz, senior vice president of Infectious Diseases at U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck, in a press release.

Based on the results,…

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released an updated version of its “Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in HIV Infected Adults and Adolescents.”

The guidelines include updated information on initial combination regimens for previously untreated (treatment-naïve) people with HIV.

According to the guidelines, antiretroviral regimens may be classified as preferred regimens, alternative regimens, or acceptable regimens. Preferred regimens are recommended as the best treatment regimens for most people starting antiretroviral therapy.

Alternative regimens,…