Switch to Quad Pill Maintained HIV Suppression (CME/CE)

Switch to Quad Pill Maintained HIV Suppression (CME/CE)

HIV patients can be successfully switched from a twice-daily integrase inhibitor regimen to a once-daily, single-tablet regimen without loss of viral suppression, researchers reported here.

At 48 weeks, all 46 patients who switched from a raltegravir-based (Isentress) regimen to the four-drug, elvitegravir-cobicistat-tenofovir-emtricitabine (Stribild) pill were able to maintain undetectable viral load using the 50 copies/ml assay, said Gordon Crofoot, MD, a Houston-based HIV researcher in private practice.

Quad Pill for HIV Appears Safe in Renal Disease (CME/CE)

Quad Pill for HIV Appears Safe in Renal Disease (CME/CE)

HIV patients with mild to moderate renal impairment appear to tolerate treatment with a combination tablet that contains drugs known to impact kidney function, a phase III, open-label, two-cohort study found.

The treatment group receiving the four-drug combination of elvitegravir, cobicistat, tenofovir DF, and emtricitabine, branded as Stribild, saw a small impact on estimated creatinine clearance (eCCr), but the change rapidly plateaued and may not be clinically meaningful, Frank Post, MD, a reader in HIV at Kings College Hospital in London, told MedPage Today

Single HIV Pill Not Always Best (CME/CE)

Single HIV Pill Not Always Best (CME/CE)

HIV patients taking single pills containing three drugs are thought to be less likely to stop taking their medications than those on more complicated regimens, but that may not be completely accurate, researchers said here.
In a retrospective, observational study, people taking the most widely used single pill were just as likely to switch therapies as were those on multipill regimens, according to Benoit Trottier, MD, of Clinique Medicale L'Actuel in Montreal, and colleagues at the AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention.