The award was announced by the Secretariat General of the Prix Galien International in Levallois-Perret-Cedex in France on November 27 1998.

Protease inhibitors prevent HIV proteins maturing at a late stage in the viral replication cycle and block the development of new, infectious viruses.

The Secretariat Committee acknowledged that saquinavir and the other protease inhibitors represented a significant breakthrough in the therapy of people with HIV infection. In combination with antiretrovirals which inhibit HIV reverse transcriptase, viral replication can now be suppressed to a level that was previously unachievable.

A recent report in The Lancet noted an 84% reduction in HIV related deaths in European countries over the last two years as a consequence of modern therapies. (For more information on EuroSida please click here).

Protease inhibitor containing regimens provide important clinical benefits to people with HIV infection; they have less frequent opportunistic infections, an increased life expectancy and a better quality of life. With the availability of protease inhibitors such as InviraseÒ HIV infection could be converted from an acute, fatal disease into a chronic, manageable infection.

Members of the Prix Galien International Committee represent eight European countries and Canada. Every two years they identify an innovative pharmaceutical product and award it with the Prix Galien International in recognition of its importance for progress in modern therapy. The selected medicine has to be truly innovative and represent a real therapeutic advance. These criteria are ideally fulfilled by HIV protease inhibitors.

The 1998 award will be given during a ceremony at the ‘Palais de l’UNESCO’ in Paris, France on 10 February 1999.

The Virology Marketing Team in Basel is very honoured that Invirase has received such a prestigious award. The Prix Galien International 1998 represents the highest recognition in a series of awards and prizes for Invirase to date.