The impact of baseline characteristics on virologic response to etravirine: 48-week pooled analysis of DUET-1 and DUET-2

Aims: The impact of baseline characteristics on response to the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor etravirine was investigated at 48 weeks in the Phase III DUET trials. Methods: Logistic regression was used to examine the effect of baseline demographics, disease characteristics and characteristics of antiretroviral therapy on virologic response (viral load <50 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml) to etravirine in pre-specified pooled subgroup analyses. Results: Several nondemographic characteristics were significant predictors of response in univariate analyses. Baseline viral load, adherence to study medication and use of enfuvirtide were predictive of response in the multivariate analysis. Patients treated with etravirine consistently achieved higher response rates than placebo-treated patients. Conclusions: The clinical benefits of etravirine in the DUET trials were observed irrespective of baseline characteristics.