Eighteen Oregonians are participating in the trial of a promising new drug to treat HIV. The experimental drug, T-20, stops individual viruses from reproducing, slowing the disease's progression. In that respect, it works like AZT. But T-20 works by interfering with an entirely different step in the virus' life cycle.

"There's really a lot of exciting work going on right now," said Dr. Mary O'Hearn, who is coordinating care for patients enrolled in the trial through Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, one of dozens of test sites worldwide. That work could put several new HIV drugs on the market in the next five years, said Dr. James Leggett, an infectious disease specialist with Providence Portland Medical Center.

For Portland AIDS activist Fred Schaich, T-20 has been a blessing -- if an annoying one. Like many of the more than 1,000 patients in the trial worldwide, he must carefully refrigerate his medicines, mix them and inject himself twice daily -- frequently moving injection sites because the shots can cause scarring. But T-20 has significantly strengthened his immune system and brought his viral load to a level undetectable on tests. Results like that give O'Hearn hope that the FDA will soon approve T-20 for sale.

Evidence from all the patients in the study, after 24 weeks of treatment, showed that those taking a mix of several HIV drugs and T-20 reduced the viral load twice as much, on average, as those taking several HIV drugs but not T-20. Researchers coordinating the trial are crunching data through 48 weeks of treatment, which the FDA will consider.

The T-20 trial marks the first time an Oregon site has taken part in early HIV drug trials, O'Hearn said.

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