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Doravirine is a novel, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor that has shown non-inferior efficacy to ritonavir-boosted darunavir, with a superior lipid profile, in adults with HIV who were treatment naive at week 48 in the phase 3 DRIVE-FORWARD trial. Here we present the 96-week data for the study.This randomised, controlled, double-blind, multicentre, non-inferiority, phase 3 study was undertaken at 125 clinical centres in 15 countries. Eligible participants were adults (aged ≥18 years) infected with HIV-1 who were naive to antiretroviral therapy, with a plasma HIV-1 RNA concentration of 1000 copies per mL or higher at screening, and no known resistance to any of the study drugs. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) using an interactive voice and web response system, stratified by baseline HIV-1 RNA concentration and background nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor therapy, to doravirine (100 mg per day) or ritonavir-boosted darunavir (100 mg ritonavir and 800 mg darunavir per day), both with investigator-selected nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors: emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate or abacavir and lamivudine. Participants and investigators were masked to treatment assignment until week 96. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of participants who had a plasma HIV-1 RNA concentration of less than 50 copies per mL at week 48, which has been reported previously. Here we report the key secondary efficacy endpoint of the proportion of participants who achieved this concentration by week 96, assessed in all participants who received at least one dose of any study drug, regardless of whether it was their randomly assigned treatment. We used a US Food and Drug Administration snapshot approach and a margin of 10 percentage points to define the non-inferiority of doravirine to ritonavir-boosted darunavir at 96 weeks. Key safety endpoints were change in fasting serum lipid concentrations, the incidence of adverse events, and time to discontinuation due to an adverse event, assessed in all participants who received at least one dose of any study medication. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02275780, and is closed to accrual.Between Dec 1, 2014, and Oct 20, 2015, 1027 individuals were screened, of whom 769 participants were randomly assigned to doravirine (n=385) or ritonavir-boosted darunavir (n=384), and 383 in both groups were given at least one dose of their allocated treatment. Most participants were male (645 [84%] of 766) and white (560 [73%]), with a mean age of 35·2 years (SD 10·6). 292 participants in the doravirine group and 273 in the darunavir group completed 96 weeks of treatment. At week 96, a higher proportion of the doravirine group (277 [73%] of 383) achieved an HIV-1 RNA concentration of less than 50 copies per mL than did of the darunavir group (248 [66%] of 383; difference 7·1%, 95% CI 0·5-13·7). Responses were similar regardless of baseline characteristics. Treatment-emergent resistance to any study drug occurred in two (1%) of 383 participants in the doravirine group and one (1%) of 383 in the ritonavir-boosted darunavir group. Significant differences were seen between treatment groups in mean changes from baseline in LDL cholesterol (-14·6 mg/dL, 95% CI -18·2 to -11·0) and non-HDL cholesterol (-18·4 mg/dL, -22·5 to -14·3). Frequencies of adverse events were similar between groups. No significant treatment difference (log-rank nominal p=0·063) through week 96 was observed in time to discontinuation due to an adverse event. The most common adverse events (week 0-96) were diarrhoea (65 [17%] in the doravirine group vs 91 [24%] in the ritonavir-boosted darunavir group), nausea (45 [12%] vs 52 [14%]), headache (57 [15%] vs 46 [12%]), and upper respiratory tract infection (51 [13%] vs 30 [8%]). Two participants, one in each group, died during treatment; neither death was considered to be related to study medication.These results through 96 weeks support the efficacy and safety results reported previously for doravirine at 48 weeks, supporting the use of doravirine for the long-term treatment of adults with previously untreated HIV-1 infection.Merck.

Summary Background Dolutegravir is a once-daily integrase strand transfer inhibitor with no need for pharmacokinetic boosting that is approved for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Because women are often under-represented in HIV clinical trials, we addressed the safety and efficacy of dolutegravir in women with HIV-1. Methods The ARIA study is a randomised, open-label, multicentre, active-controlled, parallel-group, non-inferiority phase 3b study done in 86 hospital and university infectious disease clinics, local health clinics, and private infectious disease clinics in 12 countries and one US territory, in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Eligible participants were women aged 18 years or older who had HIV-1 RNA viral loads of 500 copies per mL or greater, had received 10 days or less of previous antiretroviral therapy, and had tested negative for the HLA-B*5701 allele. Pregnant women were excluded. Eligible women were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either a single-tablet regimen of dolutegravir plus abacavir and lamivudine once a day (dolutegravir group) or a three-tablet combination of ritonavir-boosted atazanavir plus coformulated tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine once a day (atazanavir group). Random treatment group assignment was stratified by plasma HIV-1 RNA viral loads and CD4 cell count at baseline. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants with HIV-1 RNA viral loads of less than 50 copies per mL at week 48 in all participants who received at least one dose of study medication (intention-to-treat exposed population). We used a non-inferiority margin of −12%. Investigators monitored adverse events to assess safety. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01910402. Findings Between Aug 22, 2013, and Sept 22, 2015, of 705 women assessed, 499 were randomly assigned to either the dolutegravir group (n=250) or the atazanavir group (n=249); two participants from each group were randomised to treatment but did not receive study medication. At week 48, 203 (82%) of 248 participants in the dolutegravir group compared with 176 (71%) of 247 in the atazanavir group had HIV-1 RNA viral loads of less than 50 copies per mL (mean difference 10·5%, 95% CI 3·1–17·8, p=0·005). One participant in the atazanavir group had nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor–associated resistance that led to reduced emtricitabine susceptibility. Adverse events were similar between the dolutegravir and atazanavir groups; the most common were nausea (46 [19%] of 248 in the dolutegravir group vs 49 [20%] of 247 in the atazanavir group) and headache (28 [11%] vs 32 [13%]). Fewer participants in the dolutegravir group than the atazanavir group reported drug-related adverse events (83 [33%] vs 121 [49%]) or adverse events that led to discontinuation (ten [4%] vs 17 [7%]). One death was reported in each treatment group, but neither was considered related to the study medications. Interpretation The non-inferior efficacy and similar safety profile of the dolutegravir combined regimen compared with the atazanavir regimen support the use of dolutegravir for HIV-1 infection in treatment-naive women. Funding ViiV Healthcare.

Factors that contribute to the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), especially drug-resistant HIV-1 variants remain a significant public health concern. In-depth phylogenetic analyses of viral sequences obtained in the screening phase from antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected patients seeking enrollment in EPZ108859, a large open-label study in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico (ClinicalTrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT00440947","term_id":"NCT00440947"}}NCT00440947) were examined for insights into the roles of drug resistance and epidemiological factors that could impact disease dissemination. Viral transmission clusters (VTCs) were initially predicted from a phylogenetic analysis of population level HIV-1 pol sequences obtained from 690 antiretroviral-naive subjects in 2007. Subsequently, the predicted VTCs were tested for robustness by ultra deep sequencing (UDS) using pyrosequencing technology and further phylogenetic analyses. The demographic characteristics of clustered and non-clustered subjects were then compared. From 690 subjects, 69 were assigned to 1 of 30 VTCs, each containing 2 to 5 subjects. Race composition of VTCs were significantly more likely to be white (72% vs. 60%; p = 0.04). VTCs had fewer reverse transcriptase and major PI resistance mutations (9% vs. 24%; p = 0.002) than non-clustered sequences. Both men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) (68% vs. 48%; p = 0.001) and Canadians (29% vs. 14%; p = 0.03) were significantly more frequent in VTCs than non-clustered sequences. Of the 515 subjects who initiated antiretroviral therapy, 33 experienced confirmed virologic failure through 144 weeks while only 3/33 were from VTCs. Fewer VTCs subjects (as compared to those with non-clustering virus) had HIV-1 with resistance-associated mutations or experienced virologic failure during the course of the study. Our analysis shows specific geographical and drug resistance trends that correlate well with transmission clusters defined by HIV sequences of similarity. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the utility of molecular and epidemiological analysis of VTCs for identifying population-specific risks associated with HIV-1 transmission and developing effective local healthcare strategies.