Padua. New studies are pouring in on anti-HIV therapies with virological suppression rates over 95%, therefore very effective. They are being illustrated at the 17th National Icar Congress (Italian Conference on Aids and Antiviral Research), currently underway at the Padua Fair, and are opening up new perspectives around a concept of increasingly targeted and updated treatment of Aids.
Among the innovative researches there is 'Essential' and Maria Vittoria Cossu, medical director of the Luigi Sacco hospital, talks about it. Essential - explains Cossu on the sidelines of the congress works - is an observational and retrospective study, conducted in the last five years at the Luigi Sacco hospital, which aims to understand in clinical practice whether the data observed in the registration studies really represent the population".
The aim is therefore to investigate whether the study can be used safely and effectively in clinical practice. With the research, continues Cossu, 500 patients have been evaluated at the moment, on a very heterogeneous basis and therefore "truly representative of the general population in charge of our clinics.
The results show that the molecule really has an efficacy profile with data almost superior to those of the registration studies, with a rate of virological suppression equal to 97%. A very important rate", therefore. In the context of the study, evidently, the rate of tolerability and of any virological failures were also evaluated, which proved to be low.
“Therefore,” the director of Sacco points out, “it is an effective molecule, from a clinical point of view: in a heterogeneous population, it can be used. It gives us security for those patients who, virologically suppressed, in some cases must modify their regimen,” for reasons of pharmacological interactions or tolerability.
Another study, 'Bicstar', is explored by Diana Canetti, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Infectious Diseases Unit of the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele Turro. "With the Bicstar study - Canetti highlights - we are in the field of people with HIV infection already on treatment.
We present Italian data at 24 months, the peak at the national level, from what we call enrollment, that is, the beginning of the study. These are numbers from a multinational court, even if we take as a reference those of the people involved in Italy, and in any case 'real life', observational, on the efficacy and tolerability of the therapy”.
This last aspect is considered more than relevant because, compared to registration studies, it allows for the integration of specific knowledge with updates taken from everyday life. The fact is that the numbers that emerge "are in line with those of registration studies and tell us - continues the specialist from San Raffaele - of a high efficacy: depending on the statistical analysis, we are above 90% or even above 95-97%.
ùThese are data studied and analyzed based on age, also reassuring on the effectiveness of the therapy over 65 years of age as well as on tolerability”. And also emerges “a concept of persistence of this therapy: it is important because it tells us not only that it is effective and safe, but also that it is suitable to accompany people with HIV infection over time”.
All this, Canetti adds, becomes "a fixed point: in the face of so many uncertainties, knowing that there are therapies that can last over time represents an important piece of news".
Roberta Gagliardini, medical director of the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases, offers another significant contribution to the ICAR congress. At this congress we presented the data from Drive-Switch, a retrospective, fairly linear study conducted at Spallanzani and born from the idea of exploring what seemed to us to be a gap in the literature: investigating the switch from regimens containing non-nucleosides to Bictegravir/Ftc/Taf, used in combination for the treatment of HIV infection”.
So, Gagliardini points out, "we thought there was a lack of data and so we proceeded by analyzing 250 virus-suppressed patients on regimens containing "non-nucleoside" drugs, predominantly, who changed regimen towards Bictegravir/Ftc/Taf. What we were able to observe is a substantial confirmation of virological efficacy", around 95-96% at one year in patients, with few interruptions of treatment and very few virological failures.
"It is a fact - the director of Spallanzani underlines - absolutely positive, therefore. It was a study that offers a very 'real life' cross-section, with a median age of 59 and a group of people also infected with hepatitis B, with a long history of disease and exposure to drugs".
Article published on May 23, 2025 - 14:21 pm
