Etravirine: a guide to its use in treatment-experienced pediatric patients with HIV-1 infection in the US.

Etravirine (Intelence®), an oral next-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), is approved for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in treatment-experienced patients. In the US, the approved use of etravirine in patients who have evidence of viral replication and harbor HIV-1 strains resistant to other antiretroviral agents has recently been expanded to include pediatric patients aged ≥ 6 to <18 years. At 24 and 48 weeks in an open-label trial, etravirine 5.2 mg/kg twice daily (maximum dosage 200 mg twice daily) plus an optimized background therapy regimen achieved complete viral response (defined as HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL) in approximately half of treatment-experienced children and adolescents with HIV-1 infection and evidence of viral replication, and had an acceptable tolerability profile.