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New classes of antiretroviral agents are needed, particularly for patients infected with HIV strains resistant to currently available drugs. HIV entry inhibitors, a diverse new class of antiretrovirals, work by at least three different mechanisms: inhibition of membrane fusion, of CD4 receptor attachment, and of chemokine receptor attachment (to CCR5 or CXCR4). Researchers (some of them employed by the manufacturer) recently reported the results of the first study of aplaviroc, an investigational CCR5 inhibitor, in HIV-infected patients.
In this multicenter, double-blind trial, 40 HIV-infected subjects with documented CCR5-using virus were randomized to receive aplaviroc as monotherapy for 10 days (200 mg once or twice daily, 400 mg once dai…