Anyone taking Edurant?

[kellybryana]

My doctor prescribed me the Edurant and Truvada combo. He said that it is the newest drug on the market to be approved by the FDA. I'm curious to know what kind of experiences you have had with Edurant? Anyone on it?

[J.R.E.]

Kelly,

I am  not on it, but there's been some discussion here:

Edurant=(rilpivirine)

http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=37451.0


And from the lessons:


http://www.aidsmeds.com/archive/Edurant_1619.shtml


Ray

[mecch]

So are you going to start HAART now?

[kellybryana]

I was never not going to start HAART. I have my prescription, but have not started taking it yet. I think I'm going to start early this week.

[mecch]

Ok good luck. I think this combo will be easy enough. And if it isn't, there are others.

[J.R.E.]

Received this in my email today:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/229512.php


The Newest AIDS Drug Is First To Be Approved By FDA In 3 Years
Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals
Article Date: 25 Jun 2011 - 0:00 PDT




Two decades after Rutgers scientists began working with Paul Janssen, a legendary drug developer and founder of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica, to create new and potent drugs to fight AIDS, the FDA has approved the second anti-HIV drug that came from this collaboration.

"For a drug to successfully make it to the finish line, countless obstacles must be overcome," said Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Eddy Arnold, who led the Rutgers team of scientists. "As a researcher in biomedical sciences I can tell you that helping to create new medicines is something you always dream about."

The newest AIDS drug, (rilpivirine) Edurant- the first to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the last three years and manufactured by Tibotec Therapeutics, a subsidiary of J&J - was developed in 2001 and took a decade to make its way through the regulatory process and clinical trials.

"From the beginning, we knew this would be a long-term project," said Arnold, who is also a resident faculty member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology Medicine. His research team received $20 million for the project, primarily from the National Institutes of Health, including two prestigious MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) NIH awards, an honor bestowed on less than 5 percent of NIH grant recipients. "Many challenges have been faced and overall it has been more like a marathon than anything else," he said.

Resistant strains of HIV are a growing medical problem because the virus is constantly mutating, and the changes can cause existing AIDS drugs from being able to work.

Arnold's team developed innovative models that explain not only why Edurant, approved by the FDA last month, and Intelence, approved in 2008, are particularly effective against drug-resistant viruses but can also be used in the development of treatments for a wide variety of other diseases. The gist of the model is that flexibility of a drug can allow it to adapt to changes in HIV.

Clinical trials for Edurant, which included more than 1,300 adults with HIV, indicated that 83 percent of those who were given this anti-AIDS drug for a 48-week period had undetected levels of HIV in their blood at the conclusion of the clinical trial. The new drug can be prescribed as a once-a-day pill to HIV-positive adults who have not received any prior treatment or therapy. Besides being available in the United States, a generic form of the drug will be made available to millions of people in Saharan Africa, India and other developing nations.



"Development of this newest AIDS drug represents a wonderful example of the biomedical power that can be harnessed by scientific collaborations and partnerships between university, government, and private sector research enterprises," said Kenneth J. Breslauer, dean of Life and Health Sciences. "No more satisfying and important outcome can result from university research."

This scientific collaboration began in 1987 when the Rutgers team entered into a partnership with Stephen Hughes, an AIDS researcher at the National Cancer Institute. Both were interested in understanding the molecular structure and function of reverse transcriptase, an essential part of the AIDS virus, not only for its fundamental significance, but also because they believed it would provide guidance for the design of more effective drugs.

Three years later, Arnold reached out to Janssen who had developed promising compounds to prevent reverse transcriptase from being able to create a genetic copy of the AIDS virus. The Rutgers team suggested that crystal structures of the compound created by Janssen, bound to the reverse transcriptase enzyme, could help the company understand and improve its chemical structures and be used to develop more effective AIDS drugs.

They worked together for the next 13 years, during which time Janssen (who died in 2003) provided $2 million to help fund the Rutgers team's research efforts to develop drugs that would be effective against drug-resistant mutants of the AIDS virus. A pivotal breakthrough happened in 1998 when dapavirine -- which works by preventing HIV from replicating its genetic material after the virus enters a healthy cell - was developed. Further refinements of the drug led to the creation of the newest anti-AIDS drugs whose clinical development was carried out by Tibotec: Intelence which has been on the market for three years, and Edurant, which was approved by the FDA in May and has shown exceptional potency against drug resistant HIV.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the battle against HIV/AIDS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide with 1 million residing in the United States. Each year more than 56,000 become newly-infected with the virus.

Source:
Robin Lally
Rutgers University

[mikeyb39]

i've been contemplating this new drug to replace the sustiva in the atripla, I think it has been affecting my slleep and mental health lately.  i seem to have quite the mood swings in the past few months

[notinkansas]

I jsut started and I AM EXCITED TO SEE THE RESULTS!  The sustiva in the Atripla was ruining my mental stability & caused the nightmares & on average I had 2 panic attacks daily.  My only concern with the edurant is so far I have had some nausea, but haven't vomited yet.  I am hope this will fade as did with the Atripla.  My doctor said this was 100 times better than taking sustiva.  Plus I still get the energy/sexual drive that Atripla gave me.  Keep y'all posted

[notinkansas]

THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER!  Since my last post(yesterday)I have decided not to switch to the Edurant + Truvada vs. Atripla.  The nausea from the Edurant was chaotic & very strong in the morning and that led me to switching back to Atrip.  My poor body must be going crazy from all the change with the back & fourth.  But I have determined this was the best decision.  I dislike Atripla due to the anxiety it was causing me, but after careful analysis of the side effects,the Edurant was more heavy on the stomach than the Efavirenz.  GO FIGURE!?  Oh well, glad to have the Atripla still as an option.  At least on Atrip I never had nausea, which is something I CAN NOT tolerate. 

[notinkansas]

Wow what a rollercoaster it's been. Since my last posts I restarted the Atripla, only to switch right back again to the Edurant & Truvada a few weeks later due to major mental instability. I was having repetitive suicidal thoughts along with more panic & anxiety attacks than ever before.  It's now the third day after restarting the Edurant & Truvada (b-tripla) and my only complaint is the side effects during the first 2 days.  The Sustiva felt it was becoming quite hesitant leaving my body(like a demon possession)and the middle of the night vomiting from the Edurant poisoning my body.  Now on the third day, I am not experiencing the strange mental & panic attacks, nor, any strange dreams.  In matter of fact my sleep has been more solid and deep, making it harder to wake up early.  A far as other medications, before bedtime, I take just a quarter of my Promethazine to prevent nausea until my stomach learns to cope more with the Edurant-but it does make for waking up early in the morning a bit hard to do.  Also I am still taking my 1 mg Alprazolam(Xanax) twice a day as well.  I would appreciate anyone who is on Complera or using the 2 pill regimen(Edurant & Truvada)for any advice or stories relating to the therapy.  Much Obliged and bless y'all!

[Ann]

You may be sleeping so deeply at the moment because you're making up for lost rest while on the Atripla. It's only been three days now, so give it some more time. You might find that your sleep become adequate once again and you don't have so much trouble waking up. Good luck!

[Rendog]

I started Edurant a couple weeks ago, and after the break-in period of a little GI distress, things are now smooth and I am tolerating it very well. I can't believe the energy I have now. I went from moderate fatigue for many years (afternoon napping a lot) to good energy . . . practically overnight.  My regimine is: Videx EC, Reyataz, Isentress, & Edurant. The only drawback (if this is a drawback) is I'm a little too "amped up" on Edurant, creating some insomnia (requiring a return to a nightly sleeping pill), but I think that is now waning, as I've managed the last 2 nights w/out a sleeping aid. But this is the best I've felt in y-e-a-r-s. I'll go in for my first lab work on Edurant in 3 weeks. I'm betting on a non-detectable viral load & increased T-Cells. Oh -- I might add, I am NOT treatment naive (Edurant got approval for treatment-naive patients only), but, in fact, have been on ART since the beginning in 1996, yet was prescribed Edurant anyway. But I understand that's the only way Janssen could get approval (by manufacturing it to new patients only). Anybody care to comment . . . or share? Thanks.