Once-Daily Dosing of Etravirine — Pharmacokinetics, Efficacy, and Adverse Events

The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor etravirine is approved for use at a dose of 200 mg twice daily in antiretroviral treatment (ART)-experienced patients. Its long half-life (30–40 hours) suggests the possibility of once-daily dosing.

The SENSE trial was a manufacturer-sponsored study of etravirine versus efavirenz, each administered with two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors to ART-naive HIV-infected patients. The primary results of this trial were reported earlier. Fewer drug-related neuropsychiatric adverse events occurred during the first 12 weeks of treatment in the etravirine arm, although overall clinical outcomes were similar between arms (NEJM JW AIDS Clin Care Feb 7 2011). At 48 weeks, safety and virologic …