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Coreceptor antagonists were the belles of the ball in Rio. Even without lots of new data, these drugs created a buzz — because they all show dose-proportional decreases in viral load, with maximal suppression of 1.6 to 1.7 log copies/mL after 10 to 14 days of monotherapy. Several CCR5 antagonists are entering phase III trials and could be on the market within the next couple of years. Of course, many unanswered questions remain about how the virus targeting a single coreceptor will behave under drug pressure.
The investigational drugs in this new therapeutic class now have generic names: Pfizer UK-427,857 is maraviroc, Schering 417690/SCH D is vicriviroc, and GSK 871340 is aplaviroc. McHale and colleagues summarized results …