New HIV Drug Combination Shows Superiority

A new drug combination showed promising results in treatment-naïve women with HIV, researchers reported today at IDWeek 2016 in New Orleans, LA.

ViiV Healthcare investigator Debbie Hagins, MD, and colleagues, noted that a fixed dose combination of dolutegravir/abacavir showed “good tolerability and a high barrier to resistance.”

Their study, called ARIA, is an international open-label comparison of the new combination versus atazanavir plus disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine. In all 495 women were randomized and treated.

Their median age was 37, and about half were white and half of African heritage.

The new combination was superior to the comparison product, with 82% of women administered the new drug achieving HIV-1 RNA of less than 50 c/mL compared with 71% on the older regimen.

These findings applied across race subgroups, and the new drug had fewer drug-related adverse events, the researchers said.

They concluded the new combination “demonstrated superior efficacy and a favorable safety” compared with the older drug combination in treatment naïve women after 48 weeks of treatment.