Prevention Of Hiv-Infection With Tmc278

Abstract

This invention relates to the use of a parenteral formulation comprising the NNRTI TMC278 for the long term prevention of HIV infection in a subject at risk of being infected by HIV, which comprises the intermittent administration of the said formulation at long time intervals.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention relates to the use of a parenteral formulation comprising the NNRTI TMC278 for the long term prevention of HIV infection in a subject at risk of being infected by HIV, which comprises the intermittent administration of the said formulation at long time intervals.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, which is causative to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), remains a major medical challenge. HIV is able to evade immunological pressure, to adapt to a variety of cell types and growth conditions and to develop resistance against currently available drug therapies. The latter include nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NtRTIs), HIV-protease inhibitors (PIs) and the more recent fusion inhibitors.[0003]Each of these drugs can only transiently restrain viral repl...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]In one aspect, the present invention relates to the use of a parenteral formulation comprising an effective amount of TMC278 or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid-addition salt thereof, and a carrier, for the manufacture of a medicament for the long term prevention of HIV infection in an individual at risk of being infected by HIV, wherein the formulation is administered intermittently at a time interval of at leas

Problems solved by technology

The treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, which is causative to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), remains a major medical challenge.

Each of these drugs can only transiently restrain viral replication if used alone.

However, none of the currently available drug therapies is capable of completely eradicating in HIV and long-term treatment usually results in suppressing virus replication to a level where it no longer can cause the outbreak of the symptoms associated with AIDS.

A high pill burden is undesirable for many reasons, such as the patient having to spend more time taking each dose and the patient having to store and / or transport a large number or volume of pills.

A high pill burden also increases the risk that a patient will not take his or her entire dose, thereby failing to comply with the prescribed dosage regimen.

As well as reducing the effectiveness of the treatment for that patient, this may also lead to the disease-causing organism or virus becoming resistant to the pharmaceutical agent.

Individuals infected by HIV virus often are unaware of the fact that they carry the virus and therefore constitute a continuous risk of transferring the infection to others.

Even in developed countries this is still the case but in particular is a threat in many of the less-developed countries, where people have no or limited access to medical care, including to HIV diagnostic tools.

Despite these measures there is always an imminent risk for certain population groups to become infected with HIV.