Report from the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) returned this year to Seattle, the site of the 2002 meeting, when Bill Gates called on philanthropy to help support HIV treatment and research in resource-limited settings. A decade later, thanks in part to philanthropic efforts, many millions are now receiving lifesaving HIV therapy.

Reflecting a shift that we've seen for several years now, this year's meeting had a relative paucity of clinical trials comparing different antiretroviral strategies: There were only two phase III studies presented, and both of them involved comparisons between co-formulated tenofovir/FTC/elvitegravir/cobicistat (the “Quad” pill) and standard, preferred regimens. As a result, the bulk of the pre…