Once-daily saquinavir and ritonavir in treatment-experienced HIV-1-infected individuals

To assess the efficacy of 48 weeks' treatment with saquinavir 1600 mg and ritonavir 100 mg, both given once daily (SQVOD), in drug-experienced HIV-infected patients, a SQVOD-based therapy was offered to 100 treatment-experienced patients via their own physicians. The patients starting this regimen were followed up for 48 weeks. HIV-RNA was assessed by means of NASBA (limit of quantification = 80 copies/mL). Fifteen patients received the SQVOD-based therapy. Six discontinued before week 48 because of failure, toxicity or intolerance due to the high pill burden and gastrointestinal side effects. The median baseline CD4+ cell counts and plasma HIV-RNA levels were 317 cells/μL (range 44-698) and 4.18 log copies/mL (range 2.65-6.18). At week 4, there was a mean decrease of 1.96 log copies/mL (P