Nevirapine Drug Levels in HIV Positive Patients Also Receiving Rifampicin for Tuberculosis

Summary

Triomune is the most commonly prescribed treatment for HIV infection in Uganda. Triomune is manufactured by a generic drug company and consists of three drugs combined in a single pill given twice daily (stavudine 30mg plus lamivudine 150mg plus nevirapine 200mg).

It is known that the levels of nevirapine in a patient's blood are highest in the first two weeks of treatment. Therefore it is recommended that patients starting on nevirapine should undergo dose escalation i.e start on 200mg once daily for two weeks and then increase to full dose of 200mg twice daily in order to avoid nevirapine related rash. It is not possible to do dose escalation with a fixed dose combination pill like Triomune and for the two weeks of the dose escalation patients either can buy stavudine plus lamivudine plus nevirapine as separate pills or take Triomune in the morning and then take stavudine plus lamivudine as separate pills in the evening.

Rifampicin is used to treat TB and lowers the levels of nevirapine in a patient's blood. This raises two questions in routine clinical practice for patients who are co-infected with HIV and TB (1) Do we need to put our patients to the trouble of dose escalation of nevirapine if they are already on rifampicin? and (2) If we dose escalate nevirapine in patients on rifampicin, are we putting them at risk of low drug levels and development of resistance? The aim of this study is to compare the plasma concentrations of nevirapine in HIV infected patients who are commencing antiretroviral therapy with and without a lead in dose of nevirapine and who are also receiving concomitant treatment with antituberculous therapy which includes rifampicin to assess whether dose escalation of nevirapine is appropriate in this patient population

Conditions

• HIV Infections
• Tuberculosis

Interventions

DRUG

Nevirapine without dose escalation

Fixed dose combination tablets of stavudine 30mg,lamivudine 150mg and nevirapine tablets 200mg twice daily at initiation of antiretroviral therapy in patients receiving rifampicin for tuberculosis therapy

DRUG

Nevirapine initiation with dose escalation

Triomune® 30 (according to body weight) one tablet once daily (am) plus Zerit® 30 + Epivir 150mg once daily (pm) for two weeks

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Liverpool

  collaborator OTHER

• Makerere University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Concepta A Merry, PhD · University of Dublin, Trinity College

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2008-05-31

Primary Completion

2009-06-30

Completion

2010-12-31

Countries

• Uganda

Study Locations