HIV Infections
Conditions
Keywords
Drug Administration Schedule, HIV Protease Inhibitors, Dosage Forms, Saquinavir, Anti-HIV Agents
Brief summary
To compare the antiviral activity, safety, and pharmacokinetics of saquinavir hard gel capsule (HGC) formulation, to 1 of 3 doses of saquinavir soft gel capsule (SGC) formulation administered orally every 8 hours for 4 weeks.
Detailed description
Patients are randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups as follows: Group 1: 10 patients receive saquinavir HGC. Group 2: 10 patients receive saquinavir SGC. Group 3: 30 patients receive saquinavir SGC at an intermediate dose. Group 4: 30 patients receive saquinavir SGC at the highest study dose. Upon completion of the initial 4 weeks, all patients may have the option to continue their originally-assigned therapy as monotherapy unless significant drug toxicity intervenes. If the analysis of the initial 4 week data identifies an optimal dose of saquinavir SGC, patients may have the option to change to this optimal dose in a treatment extension phase of the protocol. Patients in this extension phase may choose to remain on monotherapy unless they experience significant drug toxicity, their CD4 count or HIV-RNA levels return to baseline, until saquinavir is approved by the FDA or study termination, whichever comes first. NOTE: A washout \>= 28 days is required for patients on antiretroviral therapy.
Interventions
Sponsors
Study design
Eligibility
Inclusion criteria
Patients must have: * CD4 count of 100 to 500 cells/mm3. * Greater than 20,000 HIV-RNA copies/ml.
Exclusion criteria
Prior Medication: Excluded: Prior treatment with protease inhibitors. Required: * Less than 8 weeks prior antiretroviral treatment (For at least 25% of patients). * At least 8 weeks prior antiretroviral treatment (For at least 25% of patients).
Countries
United States