Safety and efficacy are key issues in antiretroviral therapy (ART) selection. Efavirenz (EFV) is an important component of combination ART in treatment naive individuals. Like many drugs, there are inter-individual differences in the efficacy and tolerability of EFV. The Encore1 study provides an opportunity to examine the pharmacokinetics (PK)(processes by which a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and eliminated by the body) of EFV in blood samples collected over a 24-hour dosing interval in participants receiving either standard 600 mg or reduced 400 mg dose EFV once daily.
This sub-study will investigate the relationships between dosage, EFV plasma concentrations, toxicity and virological efficacy. EFV concentrations in dried blood spots and matched plasma and will be evaluated to determine the utility of dried blood spot measurements in measuring EFV plasma concentrations. Measurements dried blood spots could potentially be a cheap and easy alternative to measurements in plasma. Dried blood spots can be easily collected from venous blood or fingerprick, do not need plasma separation and potentially need less stringent storage conditions during shipment.
600 mg once daily; given as 3 x 200 mg once
400 mg once daily; given as 2 x 200 mg + 1 x placebo
Buenos Aires, Argentina