Patients are randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups as follows:
Group 1: 10 patients receive saquinavir HGC. Group 2: 10 patients receive saquinavir SGC. Group 3: 30 patients receive saquinavir SGC at an intermediate dose. Group 4: 30 patients receive saquinavir SGC at the highest study dose. Upon completion of the initial 4 weeks, all patients may have the option to continue their originally-assigned therapy as monotherapy unless significant drug toxicity intervenes. If the analysis of the initial 4 week data identifies an optimal dose of saquinavir SGC, patients may have the option to change to this optimal dose in a treatment extension phase of the protocol. Patients in this extension phase may choose to remain on monotherapy unless they experience significant drug toxicity, their CD4 count or HIV-RNA levels return to baseline, until saquinavir is approved by the FDA or study termination, whichever comes first.
NOTE: A washout \>= 28 days is required for patients on antiretroviral therapy.
