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Vertex Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline said recently that an experimental HIV drug developed by the companies outperformed or matched popular treatments for the disease in two separate trials. The drug, GW433908, in one test reduced the virus to trace levels in 66 percent of the patients previously untreated for the disease, compared with 51 percent of patients taking Pfizer Inc.'s Viracept. In another test on patients who had already been treated, the Vertex performed nearly as well as Kaletra, a drug made by Abbott Labs, but produced fewer side effects.

"What is interesting about this drug is that it can be given once daily and it's fewer pills.... The idea is to make it simpler and easier to take," said Vertex spokesperson Michael Partridge. GW433908 consists of two pills taken once or twice a day-- compared with Viracept, which patients take as five pills twice a day, and Kaletra, which patients take as three pills twice a day.

Editor's Note: from the Boston Herald