Tolerance, drug interactions, simplification.. Increasing and changing pattern of treatment switches among people with HIV
This is quite useful information! As it mentioned in the article there are more patients altering their regimen lately due to availability of newer and safer drugs. The HIV combo therapies' primarily goal is to keep viral load low enough in order to prevent AIDS and there are many combinations of various classes of drugs however many of these drugs are not tolerated due to toxicities and have drug interactions/adverse effects. As per this recent study in 2021/2022 among almost 11 thousand patients some 1000 of them changed their regimen(18 percent). 37 percent due to toxicity, 33 percent due side effects and only 17 percent due simplification. The recent PR about cost effectiveness of Trogarzo which is generally well tolerated and have fewer side effects/drug interactions compared to other HIV drugs should be considered not only by payers but patients and their doctors. Point is only 3 percent of switches were due to lack of efficiency that's why the overall therapeutic profile of Trogarzo should be a significant part of the education of patients and their caregivers.
As per PR:
"The analysis encompassed numerous costs, including those for treatment acquisition and administration, monitoring, adverse events, opportunistic infections, and terminal care."
So the cost/ concerns of any medical treatment includes not only the treatment but also dealing with other costly issues it can cause and those issues seems to be a rather meaningful concern among HIV patients battling with many co-morbidities resulting in changing their regimen.