Long-term maintenance antiretroviral therapy with saquinavir hard gel, after voluntary abandonment of successful induction HAART.

HIV-infected patients who voluntarily resorted to an apparently suboptimal drug association including saquinavir hard gel after attaining viral suppression thanks to an antiretroviral regimen based on potent protease inhibitors, had a satisfactory 12-18-month clinical and laboratory outcome. The effects of a potent and sufficiently prolonged induction antiretroviral therapy may be maintained for 12 months or more, especially when the maintenance regimen includes novel nucleoside analogues, and specific genotypical mutations are absent.