During last two decades several drugs were developed to offer long-term benefits in terms of virologic efficacy, favourable tolerability and toxicity profiles in treatment of HIV infection. Pharmacokinetics boosting of protease inhibitor allows a higher genetic barrier, as few or no drug-resistant mutations are detected in patients with virologic failure. Areas covered: Atazanavir sulfate + cobicistat (ATV/c) was recently approved for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Bioequivalence between cobicistat (COBI) and ritonavir (RTV) as a pharmacoenhancer of ATV was established. Additionally, randomized clinical trials demonstrated that ATV/c and ATV/ritonavir had comparable efficacy and safety profiles. Low rates of virologic failure and no ATV resistance mutations were observed in these clinical trials. Therefore, COBI shows increased advantages over RTV, such as no activity against HIV, fewer drug-drug interactions and better solubility, which promotes coformulation strategies with less pill burden, better tolerability, and, potentially, higher life-long treatment adherence. Expert commentary: ATV/c regimen supports its useas an effective treatment option for HIV-1 infected patients with increased cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease risk associated with aging. In addition, ATV/c is a new opportunity to expand the strategy of switch to a dual therapy to lower the risk of long-term toxicities as well as the advantage of its cost-benefit.
Keywords: Atazanavir; HIV treatment; booster; cobicistat; protease inhibitors.