• The Compact Quad, Combivir/Abacavir/Efavirenz (COM/ABC/EFV) -- Preliminary 48-Week Results (COL30336) (Poster 697)
  Authored by D.M. Parenti, George Washington University, Washington, DC; P. Ruane, Tower ID Medical Association, Inc., Los Angeles, CA; D. Margolis, VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX; A. Van Kempen, T. Kauf, S. Danehower, L. Yau, S. Hessenthaler, J. Hernandez, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NC

The compact quadruple regimen is a catchy name for a four-drug twice-a-day regimen that is combined into five pills per day. This is an open-label trial basically using trizivr plus efavirenz. Really surprising was at 24 weeks 84% of patients reported perfect adherence to medication -- meaning that they did not miss one dose! That implies that this is an extremely easy regimen to take. The results are pretty spectacular too. At week 48, 3% of patients had <50 copies of HIV RNA. Median increase in CD4 cells was 172. There were three hypersensitivity reactions to abacavir out of 38, which is higher than normal. In patients with high viral loads, the easy-to-take regimen used in this small study appears to be highly effective.