October / November 2012
New Booster in Town: Cobicistat
by Laura Whitehorn
Cobicistat, a new pharmacokinetic (PK) enhancer from Gilead Sciences, is set to unseat Abbott’s Norvir (ritonavir) as the only approved HIV treatment booster. It’s key in the newly approved Stribild tablet (a.k.a. the Quad). It will also be sold as a stand-alone drug for use with other HIV meds, along with plans to combine it in tablets with Prezista (darunavir) and Reyataz (atazanavir).
PK enhancers slow the rate at which certain HIV drugs are metabolized in the liver by enzymes. This helps boost the blood levels of the medications, making them easier to take and more effective against the virus.
Many protease inhibitors require boosting. So does elvitegravir, the integrase inhibitor in Stribild, which also contains tenofovir and emtricitabine.
Compared with Norvir, cobicistat has no activity against HIV and doesn’t block as many liver enzymes, meaning that it won’t likely have as many drug interactions. It does, however, have many of the same side effects as Norvir.
Search: Cobicistat, pharmacokinetic enhancer, Gilead Sciences, Norvir, Stribild, liver enzymes
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Thomas Hess, okeechobee,fl., 2013-02-26 15:13:19
Had to self stop stribild because of side effect of severely vivid dreams and abnormal content on a extreme level,even though dc'd,still having abnormal dreams,cause cobicistat,changed brain chemistry,have seen psychiatrist about this issue,very little info about this drugs development,and side effects and lasting effect of the drug,even when dc'd.of course this is a subjective side effect ,hard to validate,but felt a need to alert others of the risk of this new med on the body and mind.
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