Glaxo calls off
human studies of anti-HIV drug

GlaxoSmithKline this week ended all clinical trials of its experimental HIV entry inhibitor aplaviroc after a third study participant developed severe liver toxicity while taking the medication. The company had previously ended one clinical trial arm involving treatment-naive HIV patients when two study subjects in that study developed liver toxicity, but it had allowed trials that included HIV patients who had already taken other antiretroviral drugs to continue. Now all HIV-positive study participants will be switched to other anti-HIV medications, trial researchers say. Aplaviroc was being tested in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. The drug had aimed to jam CCR5 receptors on the surface of immune system cells that HIV must latch onto in order to infect the cells. (Advocate.com)