Dolutegravir – a review of the pharmacology, efficacy, and safety in the treatment of HIV

Abstract

Christopher E Kandel,1 Sharon L Walmsley1,21Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Division of Infectious Diseases, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, CanadaAbstract: Dolutegravir is the newest integrase strand transfer inhibitor to be approved for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Dolutegravir is equivalent or superior to existing treatment regimens in both treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients including those with previous raltegravir or elvitegravir failure. The consistent efficacy coupled with excellent tolerability and infrequent drug–drug interactions makes the co-formulation of dolutegravir with two nucleotide reverse-transcriptase inhibitors an attractive treatment option. This review summarizes the pharmacokinetics, adverse event profile, and efficacy of dolutegravir in the treatment of HIV.Keywords: patient-reported outcomes, integrase inhibitor, antiretroviral therapy