Regarding the question of T-20 resistance:

In the 1 month study of T-20 reported at Retrovirus, the viral load hit a max reduction of about 1.5 log and the median started to rebound towards baseline. Trimeris, the developer of T-2, suggested thus was because 41% of study participants were using T-20 monotherapy and for those with <100,000 copies/ml at baseline their VL reduction remained relatively stable. For those with >100,000 c/ml at baseline their VL rebounded. From this study one might say T-20 will have to be used as part of a multi-drug regimen, as all drugs are. This was an early study, it may be premature to characterize the drug until we have more data from additional studies. A salvage study is expected this summer. T-20 looks promising for salvage therapy but there may be production concerns. It is the first drug of its type so there are no manufacturing setups in place. It is expensive to manufacture and manufacturing procedures remain to be built for large scale production. Small scale production is ongoing. In is uncertain if supply will be able to meet demand if and when drug receives FDA approval. The company does however feel that if thar occurs within a year they can begin to catch up to demand by improving manufacturing.

Jules Levin
NATAP