Saquinavir Intensification

Intensification with boosted saquinavir sgc for 18 patients failing saquinavir hgc regimen



• FTV 1600 mg daily + RTV 200 mg daily
• Baseline VL 957-8750 copies/mL
• Mean hgc exposure was 31 mo (24-48)
• Baseline trough conc < IC90 for wild-type in all

At 3 months

• 12 responders (VL copies/mL)
• Mean trough conc ~ 0.4 ug/mL

Blanco JL et al. Abs 5.8

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Eighteen patients who were on saquinavir-hgc 600 mg TID with NRTI backbone were switched to saquinavir-sgc 1600mg/ritonavir 200 mg daily and continued on their backbone NRTIs for at least 3 weeks. Mean viral load at baseline was 3869 copies/mL, and mean time on saquinavir-hgc was 31 months (range 24-48 months). In all patients, trough levels of saquinavir were less than the published IC90 for WT virus at baseline.

There were 12/13 responders at 3 months. Trough was 0.4157 ug/mL for those who were boosted.

These data suggest that in some cases, adding low-dose ritonavir may increase saquinavir concentrations sufficiently to allow for regained viral suppression.

Blanco et al. Intensification therapy with saquinavir soft gel/ritonavir QD in patients failing on a saquinavir hard gel containing HAART. 2nd Int Workshop Clin Pharmacol HIV Ther 2001, abstract 5.8.