An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
November 6th, 2013
SINGLE Study Underscores Waning of the Efavirenz Era — But Probably Just in the USA
In today’s New England Journal of Medicine, the SINGLE study finally makes its appearance “in print.” (The study results were first presented over a year ago.) The highlights: SINGLE was a double-blind, randomized clinical trial comparing abacavir/lamivudine plus dolutegravir to tenofovir/FTC/efavirenz in 833 treatment-naive study subjects. That’s right, three different drugs in each arm — you […]
August 28th, 2013
Poll: At $14,105/year, Is Dolutegravir Fairly Priced?
The recently approved once-daily integrase inhibitor dolutegravir is now in pharmacies and, like every new HIV drug, the price — around $14k/year — has generated some controversy. For the record, here are the per-year wholesale acquisition costs of the three FDA-approved integrase inhibitors. Raltegravir: $12,976 Elvitegravir: $13,428 (once disentangled from the price of TDF/FTC) Dolutegravir: $14,105 If […]
November 2nd, 2012
Antiretroviral Rounds: Resistance on Two Fronts
Got this challenging curbside consult from a colleague, and it has a interesting wrinkle: I have a longstanding patient with HIV who had many failed regimens in the 1990’s with resultant following mutations on a genotype done in 2003: NRTI (M184V, Q151M mutations); PI (A71, I54V, K20M, L10I, L90M, V82A mutations); no NNRTI resistance. She has been undetectable since then on TDF/FTC/EFV; […]
October 28th, 2012
Dolutegravir and the 88% Rule
In the latest treatment-naive trials of elvitegravir and dolutegravir, there’s a striking consistency in the results of the “test” regimen. Here are the studies, with the percentage of responders by treatment arm: Study 102: TDF/FTC/EFV (84%) vs. TDF/FTC/EVG/c (88%) — non-inferior Study 103: TDF/FTC + ATV/r (87%) vs. TDF/FTC/EVG/c (90%) — non-inferior SPRING-2: TDF/FTC or ABC/3TC […]
August 31st, 2012
“PEARLS” Study a Massive, Impressive Accomplishment
One of the most frequent criticisms of randomized clinical trials of HIV therapy is that certain patient groups — in particular gay men — are over represented compared to the HIV population as a whole. For example, in the recently published and presented clinical trials of the Quad and dolutegravir, women accounted for < 20% of […]
May 25th, 2012
Generic Nevirapine Now Available — But the Big One is Next Year
As I’m sure you’ve heard from your patients — as I did — lamivudine (3TC) is now available generically. Now comes news of the release of several generic formulations of nevirapine (NVP), an effective but always somewhat overshadowed medication. Since its approval way back when in 1996, there has always been a solid reason to pick […]
April 24th, 2009
Colonoscopy in HIV Patients, Part II: Problem (Mostly) Solved
Both here and on the AIDS Clinical Care site, we posted a case of a 50-year-old HIV+ man in need of a screening colonoscopy. What sedation could he receive while on tenofovir/FTC and ritonavir-boosted atazanavir? Specifically, would midazolam and fentanyl (“contraindicated” in the ritonavir package insert) be ok? (Same issue for efavirenz, by the way.) We solicited […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Contributing Editor
NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases
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