Lab Tracker™ HIV, a customized electronic medical record (EMR) system was acquired from Ground Zero Software in the United States, and is a full-service, scalable software platform designed to meet the complex disease-management needs of people with HIV and the practitioners who treat them. Virco has full global rights to the product.

“The acquisition of Lab Tracker™ HIV is a major step forward in expanding our company’s health information technology offering, and a logical move following our long-standing credentials in HIV bioinformatics and drug resistance interpretation including our lead product, virco®TYPE HIV-1,” said Werner Verbiest, General Manager Worldwide, Virco. “We will continue to explore new technology opportunities that are consistent with our commitment to enhancing the care of people living with HIV and other infectious diseases by enhancing clinical decision-making.”

Virco presented three posters, as well as interacting with attendees:

• “A Potency Weighted Sensitivity Score Enables a Transparent and Accurate Prediction of the Activity of a Combination Therapy” by Bart Winters et al.
• “Rare HIV-1drug resistance mutations exert subtle synergistic and antagonistic effects in the context of the genetic background” by Margriet Van Houtte et al.
• “Validation of V3-loop based genotyping by direct comparison with 454 pyrosequencing in patients eligible for Maraviroc initiation” by Ina Vandenbroucke et al.

• This year saw continuing presented data on the Specifically Targeted Antiviral Therapy for Hepatitis C (STAT-C) agents in development, and in particular lead NS3 protease and NS5B polymerase agents in phase III and II respectively from many leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
• Studies into interferon and ribavirin-sparing combinations of Specifically Targeted Antiviral Therapy for Hepatitis C (STAT-C) antivirals have now been initiated, and the first, INFORM-1, reported initial 14 day findings. The potential for replacing current standard of care with oral antiviral combinations is very keenly anticipated.
• From a diagnostic perspective, there was considerable interest in potential host genetic biomarkers for predicting response to current standard of care (pegylated interferon and ribavirin). Whereas no single biomarker is likely to dominate as the ultimate predictive test according to the investigators, they will potentially allow clinicians to consider which approach to take in tailoring treatment for 
  chronic hepatitis C.

Virco is proud to announce the acceptance of three scientific posters with our external collaborators:

• “Resistance Associated Mutations to Etravirine (TMC-125) in Antiretroviral Naïve Patients infected with non-B HIV-1 subtypes”; Maïga AI, et al.
• “Primary Mutations Associated with Resistance to Raltegravir are not Detectable by Pyrosequencing in Integrase-Inhibitors Naive Patients”; Ceccherini-Silberstein F, et al.
• “Estimation of Virological Residual Activity on a Regimen of Abacavir/Zidovudine/Lamivudine (ABC/3TC/ZDV)”; Dunn D, et al.

This exploratory analysis demonstrated the potential for increased predictive accuracy for sensitivity scores incorporating both accurate assessments of resistance, such as those provided by virco®TYPE HIV-1, and weighting based on data driven analyses of intrinsic drug potency. Additional studies will no doubt be needed to assess the potential to incorporate weighted scores into future clinical use.