Atazanavir sulfate + cobicistat for the treatment of HIV infection.

Atazanavir sulfate + cobicistat for the treatment of HIV infection. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2017 Apr 26;: Authors: Antunes F Abstract INTRODUCTION: The life expectancy of patients living with HIV has increased significantly in the last two decades, as a result of the great progress in treatment of HIV infection. During this time, several drugs were developed to offer long-term benefits in terms of virologic efficacy, favourable tolerability and toxicity profiles. Pharmacokinetic boosting of protease inhibitors allows a higher genetic barrier, as few or no drug-resistant mutations are detected in patients with virologic failure. Areas covered: Atazanavir sulfate + cobicistat (ATV/c) was recently approved in the United States of America and in the European Union for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Studies in healthy volunteers have established bioequivalence between cobicistat (COBI) and ritonavir (RTV) as a pharmacoenhancer of ATV. Additionally, two randomized clinical trials (one Phase II and one Phase III) demonstrated that ATV/c and ATV/ritonavir had sustainable and comparable efficacy and safety profiles. Low rates of virologic failure and no ATV resistance mutations were observed in these clinical trials. The most frequent adverse event was hyperbilirubinemia, but with low levels of discontinuation. Therefore, COBI shows increased advantages over RTV, such as no activity against HIV, fewer drug-drug interactions and better...
Source: Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther Source Type: research