Alternative HIV therapies ‘just as effective’ as efavirenz

A new study into the efficacy of different drug regimens for HIV patients has found that alternative treatment pathways are just as effective as those recommended by leading healthcare bodies.

Specifically, the researchers from the AIDS Clinical Trials Group found that drug-combinations based on efavirenz – a first-line antiretroviral therapy for HIV recommended by the US Department of Health and World Health Organization (WHO) – are no more efficacious than efavirenz-free regimens.

This could have important implications for patients that are not eligible for efavirenz treatment, such as women expecting to become pregnant and individuals with a history of severe psychiatric disorder.

Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the study tested three non-efavirenz therapies on a pool of 1,809 patients. It found they attained equivalent rates of control of HIV in the blood and restored immune system function as their WHO-recommended counterpart.

"This is critical information for patients who cannot tolerate efavirenz and we believe this head-to-head comparison will provide useful information to guide clinicians about choosing among them," commented professor Jeffrey Lennox, lead author of the study.