GLOBAL HEALTH: Maraviroc: New Antiretroviral Drug Shows Efficacy and Safety

Audio Journal of Global Health Issues Maraviroc: New Antiretroviral Drug Shows Efficacy and Safety REFERENCE: Abstract Number: 104aLB, 104bLB, 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Los Angeles February 25-28, 2007 HOWARD MAYER, Pfizer Global Research, New London CT MARK WAINBERG, McGill University, Montreal In a population of treatment-experienced HIV-infected subjects, maraviroc plus optimised background antiretroviral therapy provided significantly superior virologic control and increases in CD4 cell counts compared with placebo plus optimized background therapy. There were no clinically relevant differences in the safety profiles between the maraviroc and the placebo treatment groups. These drugs do not attack the virus itself but rather block host cells’ CCR5 cell surface cytokine receptors that HIV interacts with to gain entry into the cell.