emivirine + nelfinavir

**Emivirine + nelfinavir** is a combination of two investigational antiretroviral drugs once studied for the treatment of HIV infection. Emivirine is a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) that inhibits HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, disrupting viral replication. Nelfinavir is a potent small molecule HIV-1 protease inhibitor that prevents proteolytic cleavage of viral polyproteins, resulting in immature, non-infectious HIV-1 particles. While nelfinavir was approved as an antiretroviral agent, emivirine was never approved due to insufficient efficacy. The combination of an NNRTI (such as emivirine) and a protease inhibitor (such as nelfinavir) was proposed as a strategy to achieve additive or synergistic inhibition of HIV viral replication, but emivirine was not widely adopted in clinical use.