Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 26, 2019; 7(14): 1814-1824
Published online Jul 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i14.1814
Desimplification to multi-tablet antiretroviral regimens in human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 infected adults: A cohort study
Maria C Rossi, Walter O Inojosa, Giuseppe Battistella, Antonella Carniato, Francesca Farina, Mario Giobbia, Rodolfo Fuser, Pier G Scotton
Maria C Rossi, Walter O Inojosa, Antonella Carniato, Francesca Farina, Mario Giobbia, Rodolfo Fuser, Pier G Scotton, Infectious Diseases Unit, Treviso Hospital, Treviso 31100, Italy
Giuseppe Battistella, Epidemiology and Statistic Unit, Azienda ULSS 2 “Marca Trevigiana”, Treviso 31100, Italy
Author contributions: Rossi MC, Battistella G and Scotton PG designed the report; Rossi MC, Inojosa WO, Carniato A, Farina F, Giobbia M and Fuser R collected the patients’ clinical data; Rossi MC, Inojosa WO and Battistella G analyzed the data and wrote the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The Institutional Review Board of Treviso Hospital, Italy, provided approval for this study (IRB NO: EUDRACT 2011-004935-30).
Informed consent statement: All eligible patients signed the informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Walter O Inojosa, MD, Doctor, Infectious Diseases Unit, Treviso Hospital, Piazza Ospedale 1, Treviso 31100, Italy. walteromar.inojosa@aulss2.veneto.it
Telephone: +39-42-2322065 Fax: +39-42-2322069
Received: March 12, 2019
Peer-review started: March 15, 2019
First decision: April 18, 2019
Revised: May 2, 2019
Accepted: May 23, 2019
Article in press: May 23, 2019
Published online: July 26, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: In a cohort of adults with suppressed human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) viremia, the switch from fixed-dose coformulations to the corresponding multitablet regimens (MTRs) did not affect the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in terms of virological response and immunological recovery. Our data came from a well-established study population that was demographically representative of the Italian HIV-infected population, with very high levels of adherence and complete virological suppression. By involving patients in the decision to switch to a MTR for economic reasons, the magnitude of the potential clinical benefits from fixed dose coformulation regimens appears to be cancelled by the efficacy and tolerability of the antiretroviral drugs currently available in MTRs, even in a generic formulation, despite a small risk of drug discontinuation in patients who switched to MTRs because of mere convenience issues due to the number of tablets.