HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

The Roche corporation said a trial of a two- drug combination for patients infected with HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) showed a marked benefit against viral levels.

Roche said the combination of its hepatitis C drug Pegasys and the antiviral Copegus produced a sustained 40 percent virological response in a trial of 868 patients with both infections. Similar viral reductions were achieved in only 20 percent of patients receiving only Pegasys, and in only 12 percent of participants receiving conventional interferon/ribavirin treatment.

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In the trial, patients were treated for one year and followed for six months. At that point, 40 percent of Pegasys- Copegus patients showed no discernible sign of the hepatitis virus, showing "that you can eradicate the virus," said Francesca Torriani, lead investigator and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego.

HIV exacerbates liver disease in patients with HCV. Now that antiretroviral drugs are prolonging the lives of many people with HIV, liver disease is emerging as one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality among such patients.

Editor's Note: from the Wall Street Journal