An NRTI-Sparing Regimen for HIV-Infected, Treatment-Naive Patients?

For antiretroviral treatment–naive individuals, several regimens are recommended; all include two nucleoside/nucleotide reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs; either tenofovir/FTC or abacavir/lamivudine). Because of tolerability and toxicity issues with NRTIs, researchers have been investigating NRTI-free regimens for initial therapy.

In a randomized, open-label, noninferiority trial involving 805 treatment-naive HIV-infected individuals in 15 European countries (88% men, 82% white, 72% men who have sex with men, 4% with hepatitis C virus coinfection), researchers compared ritonavir-boosted darunavir (100/800 mg daily) plus raltegravir (400 mg twice daily) with the standard regimen of ritonavir-boosted darunavir plus tenofovir/FTC. Median …