Brinson C, Bogner JR, Nelson M, Podzamczer D, Quinson AM, Drulak M, Andrade-Villanueva J, Cahn P, Santiago S and Gathe J
Background: We report 96- and 144-week follow-up data from VERxVE, demonstrating that nevirapine (NVP) extended release (XR) 400 mg once daily was non-inferior to NVP immediate release (IR) 200 mg twice daily, each administered on a backbone of emtricitabine/tenofovir. Methods: VERxVE was a double-blind, double-dummy, non-inferiority study in adults with screening viral load (VL) >1000 copies/mL and CD4+ cell count <400 cells/mm3 (males) or <250 cells/mm3 (females). Randomisation was stratified by baseline VL (copies/mL) ≤ 100,000 or >100,000. The primary endpoint was confirmed virologic response (<50 copies/mL) at week 48. Cochran’s statistic incorporating baseline VL strata tested non-inferiority of XR efficacy versus IR. Secondary endpoints included 144-week sustained virologic response and safety. Results: In all, 1011 patients were randomised and treated with NVP: 736 (XR n=378; IR n= 358) completed 144 weeks. Virologic response was 63.6% for NVP XR and 58.5% for NVP IR (adjusted difference of 4.8% [95% confidence interval –1.1% to 10.8%] favouring NVP XR). No significant differences were seen in changes in CD4+ T-cell counts from baseline, virologic failures or total discontinuation rates between treatment arms, regardless of demographic or baseline characteristics. Conclusions: NVP XR demonstrated non-inferior virologic efficacy to NVP IR in treatment-naïve HIV-infected patients and was well tolerated out to week 144, with a safety profile similar to NVP IR.
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