COST-MINIMIZATION ANALYSIS OF ETRAVIRINE AND RALTEGRAVIR USED IN THERAPY FOR HIV INFECTION

The epidemic of HIV infection remains a priority for the world community. Russia and Ukraine are a basic reservoir of this social infection, HIV being mainly transmitted through the parenteral route that is common among injection narcotic users. Highly active antiretroviral therapy is associated with side effects and HIV resistance. In these conditions, there is an increasing demand for second-line agents with a good safety profile and a high barrier to the development of resistance. Etravirine (ETR) (intelence®, Janssen-Cilag) and raltegravir (RAL) (isentress®, Merck Sharp & Dohme B.V.) are indicated as components of combination therapy for previously treated adult patients infected with HIV-1. Meta-analysis of the results of the DUET I, II (ETR) and BENCHMARK I, II (RAL) studies showed that these drugs had the same therapeutic effect. The purpose of this study was to make a pharmacoeconomic analysis of antiretroviral therapy with ETR and RAL in HIV-infected patients. This study used a cost-minimization analysis. The cost of the compared drugs was taken from the 2011 Federal tender prices within the priority National Health project. Comparison of the estimated number of patients treated with each drug indicated that the use of ETR can provide much more patients with equally effective therapy than that with RAL. The annual cost of ETR is vastly below that of RAL. This allows the choice of ETR to be used for the treatment of previously untreated HIV-infected patients.

AIDS, HIV infection, highly active antiretroviral therapy, etravirine, raltegravir, cost-minimization analysis