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MONDAY, March 11, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Monthly long-acting (LA) cabotegravir (CAB) and rilpivirine (RPV) are noninferior to daily regimens for patients with HIV-1, according to two studies presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held from March 4 to 7 in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Susan Swindells, M.B.B.S., from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and colleagues conducted a phase 3 study to examine whether switching to monthly LA CAB+RPV is noninferior to current three-drug oral antiretroviral therapy (ART). Participants included 616 patients with HIV-1 RNA with virologically suppressed infection. The researchers found that 1.6 and 1.0 percent of participants in the LA and ART arms, respectively, had HIV-1 RNA \u226550 copies\/mL at week 48, meeting noninferiority criteria for the primary end point. For the key secondary end point of HIV-1 RNA, the LA arm was also noninferior to ART. The LA regimen was generally well tolerated.<\/p>\n
Chloe Orkin, M.B.B.Ch., from the Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues examined whether switching to monthly LA CAB+RPV is noninferior to dolutegravir\/abacavir\/lamivudine (DTG\/ABC\/3TC). ART-naive participants received 20 weeks of induction therapy with oral DTG\/ABC\/3TC, and those with HIV-1 RNA who initiated induction therapy were randomly assigned to LA or DTG\/ABC\/3TC. The researchers found that at week 48, 2.1 and 2.5 percent of patients in the LA arm and DTG\/ABC\/3TC arm, respectively, had HIV-1 RNA \u226550 copies\/mL, meeting noninferiority criteria for the primary end point; noninferiority criteria were also met for the key secondary end point of HIV-1 RNA.<\/p>\n
“Overall, these results demonstrated the therapeutic potential of CAB+RPV injections, following short initial induction with oral DTG\/ABC\/3TC to achieve viral suppression,” Orkin and colleagues write.<\/p>\n
One author from the Swindells study was an employee of GlaxoSmithKline; several authors from the Orkin study were employees of pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n
Abstract – Swindells<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract – Orkin<\/a><\/p>\n