HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

To determine if adefovir benefits HIV patients who are undergoing stable antiretroviral therapy, 442 patients were studied at 33 HIV treatment centers throughout the United States. In the study, approximately half of the patients were randomized to receive adefovir dipivoxil once a day at 120 mg for 24 weeks, while the remainder received a placebo; all subjects were given 500 mg/d of L-carnitine, and open-label adefovir was offered after the 24-week mark and until the end of the study. The researchers report that adefovir significantly decreased HIV RNA levels while the placebo group's levels remained constant.

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There was no change in CD4 cell counts.

Gastrointestinal side effects were reported in 57 percent of the adefovir patients, compared to 29 percent of the placebo groups.

Data from the study show that adefovir significantly reduced HIV RNA levels and increased the proportion of subjects with viral loads below 500 copies/mL. This suggest that the drug is an effective treatment given once-daily, and it is also active against HIV isolates that may be resistant to lamivudine or zidovudine.

Editor's Note: from JAMA