Efficacy and safety of etravirine at week 96 in treatment-experienced HIV type-1-infected patients in the DUET-1 and DUET-2 trials

Abstract

Background: Durable efficacy and long-term safety of antiretroviral therapy are important goals in the management of treatment-experienced patients. The 96-week efficacy and safety of the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) etravirine were evaluated in the Phase III DUET trials.

Methods: HIV type-1-infected treatment-experienced adults with viral loads >5,000 copies/ml and NNRTI and protease inhibitor resistance were randomized to receive etravirine 200 mg or placebo, each twice daily and in combination with a background regimen of darunavir/ritonavir twice daily, nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors and optional enfuvirtide. The primary end point was the proportion of patients with viral load <50 copies/ml (intent-to-treat analysis, time-to-loss of virological response algorithm) at week 24. Results from both trials were combined in the pre-specified pooled 96-week analysis.

Results: In total, 599 patients received etravirine and 604 received placebo. At week 96, 57% of patients in the etravirine group versus 36% in the placebo group had a viral load <50 copies/ml (P<0.0001); 91% and 88% of patients, respectively, had maintained this response from week 48. Mean increases in CD4(+) T-cell count from baseline at week 96 were 128 cells/mm(3) with etravirine versus 86 cells/mm(3) with placebo (P<0.0001). With the exception of rash, which was reported more frequently with etravirine than placebo (21% versus 12%, respectively; P<0.0001), the safety and tolerability profile of etravirine was similar to placebo over the treatment period.

Conclusions: Etravirine, in combination with an antiretroviral background regimen, provided durable virological and immunological responses with no new safety concerns in treatment-experienced patients over 96 weeks in the DUET trials.