Pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions of antiretrovirals: an update

Current antiretroviral treatment has allowed HIV infection to become a chronic manageable condition with many HIV patients living longer. However, available antiretrovirals are not without limitations, for example the development of resistance and adverse effects. Consequently, new drugs in existing and novel classes are urgently required to provide viable treatment options to patients with few remaining choices. Darunavir, etravirine, maraviroc and raltegravir have been recently approved for treatment-experienced patients and other agents such as rilpivirine, vicriviroc and elvitegravir are currently under phase III study. Clinical studies are necessary to optimise potential treatment combinations and to manage drug-drug interactions to help avoid toxicity or therapy failure. This review aims to summarise the pharmacokinetics and key drug-drug interaction studies for newly available antiretrovirals and those in development. Further information regarding drug-drug interactions of well established antiretrovirals and those recently approved are readily available online at sites such as http://www.hiv-druginteractions.org, http://www.clinicaloptions.com/hiv, http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu. This article forms part of a special issue of Antiviral Research marking the 25th anniversary of antiretroviral drug discovery and development, Vol 85, issue 1, 2010.