Comparative efficacy of HIV regimens
Executive Summary
Highly-active antiretroviral therapy regimens that include non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors were "modestly" better at virological suppression than protease inhibitor-based regimens, according to a direct meta-analysis of 12 trials conducted by the Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center. No difference was seen in death or disease progression or in withdrawal due to adverse events. However, the findings were complicated by an indirect analysis of 14 trials that included trials that were not head-to-head comparisons, which showed that NNRTI-based HAART was worse than PI-based regimens for virological suppression. The authors suggest that "indirect comparisons could be particularly unreliable for complex and rapidly evolving interventions such as HAART"...