Encouraging results for new NNRTI in resistant HIV patients
Use of the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) etravirine,
for treatment-experienced patients with NNRTI resistance, achieves better
virological suppression than placebo, according to the results of two
trials published in The Lancet last week (2007;370:29 and 39).
DUET-1 and DUET-2 (conducted in different countries) randomised treatment-experienced
adult patients, with virological failure on stable antiretroviral therapy,
documented genotypic evidence of NNRTI resistance, viral load
over 5,000 copies per ml and three or more primary protease inhibitor
mutations, to receive etravirine 200mg or placebo twice daily. All patients
also received darunavir with low-dose ritonavir and investigator-selected
nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Enfuvirtide use was optional.
In DUET-1, at week 24, 170 patients (56 per cent) in the etravirine group
and 119 patients (39 per cent) in the placebo group achieved a viral
load of less than 50 copies per ml (difference 17 per cent, 95 per cent
confidence interval 9–25; P=0.005).
Similar results were achieved in DUET-2, with 183 patients (62 per cent)
in the etravirine group and 129 patients (44 per cent) in the placebo
group achieving a viral load of less than 50 copies per ml at week 24.
The type and frequency of adverse events were similar in the two groups
in both trials.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader