A Clinical Trial Comparing the Tolerability of Etravirine to Efavirenz in Combination With 2 Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors in Treatment-naive HIV-1 Infected Patients (SENSE)

Primary Outcome Measures:

• Proportion of Patients With at Least 1 Treatment-emergent Grade 1-4 Central Nervous System or Psychiatric Adverse Event [ Time Frame: between baseline and 12 weeks ]
  Proportion of patients with at least 1 treatment-emergent Grade 1-4 Central Nervous System or psychiatric Adverse Event, observed between Baseline through Week 12 and judged by investigator to be at least possibly related to the study drug in ETR group versus EFV group. All Adverse Events were graded according to the Division of AIDS Table for Grading the Severity of Adult and Pediatric Adverse Events ("DAIDS AE grading table"). Grade 1-4 covers all severities.
  
  

Secondary Outcome Measures:

• Antiviral Activity of ETR vs. EFV [ Time Frame: between baseline and week 48 ]
  The proportion of patients with confirmed plasma viral load <50 copies/mL at Week 48 as assessed by Time to Loss of Virologic Response (TLOVR)
  
  
• Antiviral Activity of ETR vs. EFV [ Time Frame: between baseline and week 48 ]
  The proportion of patients with confirmed plasma viral load <200 copies/mL at Week 48 as assessed by Time to Loss of Virologic Response (TLOVR)
  
  
• Mean Change From Baseline in Neuropsychiatric and Total Tolerabililty Score [ Time Frame: between baseline and week 48 ]
  The HIV Patient Symptoms Profile measures the tolerability of HIV treatment from the patient's perspective, using 14 concept scales in maximum 84 questions. The response options include a "no" or "yes" answer to "Did symptom occur?". If "yes", there is a problem scale which ranges from 1 = "I had this symptom and it was not a problem" to 5 = "I had this symptom and it was a severe problem". A neuropsychiatric tolerability score is composed as the sum of 21 items and ranges from 0 (best) to 105 (worse). A total Tolerability score (ie, the sum of all items) ranges from 0 (best) to 420 (worse)
  
  
• Neuropsychiatric Adverse Events by Week 48 [ Time Frame: from baseline to week 48 ]
  The percentage of patients with at least 1 treatment emergent Grade 1 -4 neurologic or psychiatric adverse event, judged by the investigator to be at least possibly related to the study drug.
  
  
• Mean Change From Baseline in CD4+ Cell Count [ Time Frame: at baseline and week 2, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 ]
  The mean change in CD4+ cell count from baseline was calculated with a last observation carried forward method; i.e. the last observed value was carried forward, irrespective of the reason for discontinuation.
  
  
• Resistance Determinations [ Time Frame: at baseline and all subsequent visits until week 48 in case if virologic failure ]
  The evolution of viral genotype and phenotype was assessed by the number of patients with resistance-associated mutations emerging at the endpoint. A mutation was considered emerging if it was present at endpoint and not present at baseline or any pre-baseline assessment. (NNRTI = non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor; NRTI = nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor; RAM = resistance-associated mutation, IAS-USA = International AIDS Society - USA)
  
  

This is a phase IIb, randomised (study medication is assigned by chance), double-blind (neither the patient nor the study physician will know to which treatment group the patient is assigned) trial to assess the neuropsychiatric adverse event profile of etravirine (ETR) 400mg once daily versus efavirenz (EFV) 600mg once daily, each in combination with an investigator-selected background of 2 other anti-HIV drugs of the class nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (N[t]RTIs). The combination of N[t]RTIs to be chosen by the study physician can be abacavir (ABC)/lamivudine (3TC), zidovudine (AZT)/lamivudine (3TC) or tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF)/emtricitabine (FTC). Approximately 150 Human Immuno-deficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) infected patients, who have never received any antiretroviral (ARV) treatment will be randomly assigned (like tossing a coin) to either the etravirine treatment group or the control group (efavirenz). The study period includes a screening period of maximum 6 weeks, a 48 week treatment period, an additional 2-8 weeks treatment until unblinding (study physician (and patient) will receive information to which treatment group the patient is assigned), followed by a 4 weeks follow-up period. The main purpose of this study is to gather further data on how many, how often, and how severe the central nervous system and psychiatric (neuropsychiatric) events are between the two treatment groups. In addition, the study will look at overall safety, tolerability and antiviral effectiveness between the two treatment groups. During the trial, patients' health will be monitored by physical examination, checking of vital signs (blood pressure / pulse), and laboratory testing on blood and urine samples. Also blood samples will be drawn to measure the antiviral effectiveness (i.e., decrease of the plasma viral load to a level <50 HIV-1 RNA (ribonucleic acid) copies/mL), immunology assessments (to assess the body's immune system) and pharmacokinetic (to measure the drug level in blood) analysis of etravirine. Patients will be asked to complete the "HIV Patient Symptoms Profile" (HIV PSP) Questionnaire at each visit, which contains questions relating to the impact on patients' current health and well-being. The study hypothesis is that the proportion of patients with at least one neuropsychiatric adverse event related to the study drug, observed between start of treatment (Baseline; BSL) through Week 12, is significantly lower in the etravirine group than in the efavirenz group. Patients will be taking blinded medication twice a day, administered orally (by mouth). Only one of the blinded doses will contain an active ingredient. Etravirine 400mg (or dummy-pills) - 4 tablets - should be taken once a day, following a meal, preferably breakfast. Efavirenz 600mg (or dummy-pill) - 1 tablet - should be administered once daily on an empty stomach, preferably at bedtime.The intake of the investigator-selected N[t]RTIs should be taken as instructed by the investigator.