Pharmacoeconomics of darunavir

Abstract

Darunavir boosted with ritonavir (DRV/r) in combination with other antiretrovirals (ARVs) was initially approved in 2006 for the treatment of HIV infection in ARV treatment-experienced adults and has subsequently been approved for use in treatment-naive adults in 2008. Clinical studies have shown that DRV/r in combination with other ARVs achieves superior levels of undetectable plasma HIV RNA and generates significant CD4 increases, which reduce the risk of HIV disease progression. Economic evaluations, based on data from controlled clinical trials, found DRV/r combination therapy to generate savings in hospital costs and other non-ARV costs of care in treatment-experienced patients, to maximize the number of patients reaching undetectable plasma HIV RNA, to improve health-related quality of life and quality-adjusted life expectancy, and to be cost effective across different patient populations.

Keywords::

• AIDS
• cost–effectiveness
• darunavir
• HIV
• pharmacoeconomics
• protease inhibitors

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Mary Jane Watson, PharmD, for her help in formatting the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Dwight S Fullerton had full editorial control on the contents of this manuscript; he received grant funding from Tibotec Therapeutics for this project. Guy De La Rosa and Joseph M Mrus are employees of Tibotec Therapeutics. Erik Smets is an employee of Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.