An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
November 2nd, 2012
Antiretroviral Rounds: Resistance on Two Fronts
Got this challenging curbside consult from a colleague, and it has a interesting wrinkle:
I have a longstanding patient with HIV who had many failed regimens in the 1990’s with resultant following mutations on a genotype done in 2003:
NRTI (M184V, Q151M mutations); PI (A71, I54V, K20M, L10I, L90M, V82A mutations); no NNRTI resistance.
She has been undetectable since then on TDF/FTC/EFV; CD4 of >700 and never a low nadir.
Now, however, her insurance is making her pay tremendous copays of ~2K/month and she can’t afford it. She makes just enough that she doesn’t qualify for any drug assistance programs — she’s been to every advocacy group in the area, and is told no assistance is available.
Somehow, Complera is a tier 3 (favorable), while Atripla and many of the other drugs she is not resistant to is a tier 5.
Should I switch to Complera? Any other ideas? Other less expensive meds are abacavir/3TC, Kaletra, plus a bunch of others we never use anymore.
Two thoughts on this case, one medical, one much less so.
First, the medical part — my gut feeling here is that she’d probably be fine on TDF/FTC/RPV, given the duration of virologic suppression. These patients with long-term undetectable HIV RNA can generally make lots of changes to their regimens (within reason), and they maintain control of the virus. And the TDF and RPV both would be active.
But with broad NRTI resistance, I confess I’m kind of worried about changing to a drug (RPV) that is arguably less potent than what she’s on (EFV).
So I’m undecided.
Now the non-medical part — isn’t it ridiculous that someone whose treatment has been working well for nearly a decade must now consider switching based on 1) a higher “tier” of costs passed along by the mega-million dollar insurance company, who probably earn that much profit in a nanosecond, and 2) her not meeting criteria for patient assistance?
Answer: Yes.
5 Responses to “Antiretroviral Rounds: Resistance on Two Fronts”
Paul E. Sax, MD
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How about breaking down the Atripla into its components? BMS has a $400/month discount copay card for Sustiva and Gilead has $200 cards for both Emtriva and Viread. When the Efavirenz becomes generic next year the copay will probably come way down. According to what I am reading at the websites, there are no income limits for any of the cards.
Another option is to split up the efv and ftc/ten, could be cheaper, oddly enough…esp soon as efv is going generic
Import generic stuff (e.g. Viraday) from India at the cost of about $100-150 or less per month.
Encourage her to move to a country where genuine care for patients is superior to making money
Isn’t 2K/month (I’m assuming U.S. Dollars) about the monthly cost of TDF/FTC/EFV (Atripla)? It sounds like the “Tier 5” prescription medications are basically not covered at all. Her insurance or pharmacy benefits manager should have some sort of appeals process.