LopinavirRitonavir versus Nelfinavir for the Initial Treatment of HIV Infection
Sharon Walmsley, M.D., Barry Bernstein, M.D., Martin King, Ph.D., José Arribas, M.D., Gildon Beall, M.D., Peter Ruane, M.D., Margaret Johnson, M.D., David Johnson, M.D., Richard Lalonde, M.D., Anthony Japour, M.D., Scott Brun, M.D., Eugene Sun, M.D., for the M98-863 Study Team
Background Lopinavir is a newly developed inhibitor of humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease that, when formulatedwith ritonavir, yields mean trough plasma lopinavir concentrationsthat are at least 75 times as high as that needed to inhibitreplication of wild-type HIV by 50 percent.
Methods We conducted a double-blind trial in which 653 HIV-infectedadults who had not received antiretroviral therapy for morethan 14 days were randomly assigned to receive either lopinavirritonavir(400 mg of lopinavir plus 100 mg of ritonavir twice daily) withnelfinavir placebo or nelfinavir (750 mg three times daily)with lopinavirritonavir placebo. All patients also receivedopen-label stavudine and lamivudine. The primary efficacy endpoints were the presence of fewer than 400 HIV RNA copies permilliliter of plasma at week 24 and the time to the loss ofvirologic response through week 48.
Results At week 48, greater proportions of patients treatedwith lopinavirritonavir than of patients treated withnelfinavir had fewer than 400 copies of HIV RNA per milliliter(75 percent vs. 63 percent, P<0.001) and fewer than 50 copiesper milliliter (67 percent vs. 52 percent, P<0.001). Thetime to the loss of virologic response was greater in the lopinavirritonavirgroup than in the nelfinavir group (hazard ratio, 2.0; 95 percentconfidence interval, 1.5 to 2.7; P<0.001). The estimatedproportion of patients with a persistent virologic responsethrough week 48 was 84 percent for patients receiving lopinavirritonavirand 66 percent for those receiving nelfinavir. Both regimenswere well tolerated, with the rate of discontinuation relatedto the study drugs at 3.4 percent among patients receiving lopinavirritonavirand 3.7 percent among patients receiving nelfinavir. Among patientswith more than 400 copies of HIV RNA per milliliter at somepoint from week 24 through week 48, resistance mutations inHIV protease were demonstrated in viral isolates from 25 of76 nelfinavir-treated patients (33 percent) and none of 37 patientstreated with lopinavirritonavir (P<0.001).
Conclusions For the initial treatment of HIV-infected adults,a combination regimen that includes lopinavirritonaviris well tolerated and has antiviral activity superior to thatof a nelfinavir-containing regimen.
Source Information
From Toronto Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto (S.W.); Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill. (B.B., M.K., A.J., S.B., E.S.); Servico VIHMedicina Interna II, Hopital Universitario La Paz, Madrid (J.A.); Harbor UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, Calif. (G.B.); Tower Infectious Diseases, Los Angeles (P.R.); Royal Free Hospital, London (M.J.); Johannesburg, South Africa (D.J.); and Montreal Chest Institute, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal (R.L.).
Address reprint requests to Dr. Walmsley at Toronto General Hospital, Division of Infectious Diseases, Rm. EN G-219, 200 Elizabeth St., Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada, or at sharon.walmsley{at}uhn.on.ca.
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