New HIV Drug Passes Hurdle

The experimental HIV drug bevirimat passed another test — showing no interaction with other commonly prescribed HIV drugs in a U.S. study.

Graham Allaway, president of Panacos Pharmaceuticals in Gaithersburg, Md., told United Press International that combined treatment of bevirimat and the protease inhibitor atazanavir (Reyataz, Bristol-Myers Squibb) did not increase levels of bilirubin, an indication of liver problems.

Atazanavir is known to cause bilirubin increases, but the combination of the two drugs in 24 healthy volunteers didn’t increase that problem, Allaway said.

The research was presented at this week’s Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology.

Since it is likely that PA-457, which is now known as bevirimat, will be used with other drugs, we needed to test for interactions with likely treatment partners, said Allaway.

Bevirimat, now in phase 2b studies, is the first in the class of maturation inhibitors of HIV. It prevents the virus from performing the final act in the microbe’s life cycle — releasing virions into the blood stream.