Darunavir warnings and precautions
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Ahmed Zaghw, M.D. [2]
Warnings and Precautions
General
PREZISTA must be co-administered with ritonavir and food to achieve the desired antiviral effect. Failure to administer PREZISTA with ritonavir and food may result in a loss of efficacy of darunavir.
Hepatotoxicity
Drug-induced hepatitis (e.g., acute hepatitis, cytolytic hepatitis) has been reported with PREZISTA/ritonavir. During the clinical development program (N=3063), hepatitis was reported in 0.5% of patients receiving combination therapy with PREZISTA/ritonavir. Patients with pre-existing liver dysfunction, including chronic active hepatitis B or C, have an increased risk for liver function abnormalities including severe hepatic adverse events.
Post-marketing cases of liver injury, including some fatalities, have been reported. These have generally occurred in patients with advanced HIV-1 disease taking multiple concomitant medications, having co-morbidities including hepatitis B or C co-infection, and/or developing immune reconstitution syndrome. A causal relationship with PREZISTA/ritonavir therapy has not been established.
Appropriate laboratory testing should be conducted prior to initiating therapy with PREZISTA/ritonavir and patients should be monitored during treatment. Increased AST/ALT monitoring should be considered in patients with underlying chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, or in patients who have pre-treatment elevations of transaminases, especially during the first several months of PREZISTA/ritonavir treatment.
Evidence of new or worsening liver dysfunction (including clinically significant elevation of liver enzymes and/or symptoms such as fatigue, anorexia, nausea, jaundice, dark urine, liver tenderness, hepatomegaly) in patients on PREZISTA/ritonavir should prompt consideration of interruption or discontinuation of treatment.
Severe Skin Reactions
During the clinical development program (n=3063), severe skin reactions, accompanied by fever and/or elevations of transaminases in some cases, have been reported in 0.4% of subjects. Stevens-Johnson syndrome was rarely (less than 0.1%) reported during the clinical development program. During post-marketing experience toxic epidermal necrolysis and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis have been reported. Discontinue PREZISTA/ritonavir immediately if signs or symptoms of severe skin reactions develop. These can include but are not limited to severe rash or rash accompanied with fever, general malaise, fatigue, muscle or joint aches, blisters, oral lesions, conjunctivitis, hepatitis and/or eosinophilia.
Rash (all grades, regardless of causality) occurred in 10.3% of subjects treated with PREZISTA/ritonavir [also see Adverse Reactions (6)]. Rash was mostly mild-to-moderate, often occurring within the first four weeks of treatment and resolving with continued dosing. The discontinuation rate due to rash in subjects using PREZISTA/ritonavir was 0.5%.
Rash occurred more commonly in treatment-experienced subjects receiving regimens containing PREZISTA/ritonavir + raltegravir compared to subjects receiving PREZISTA/ritonavir without raltegravir or raltegravir without PREZISTA/ritonavir. However, rash that was considered drug related occurred at similar rates for all three groups. These rashes were mild to moderate in severity and did not limit therapy; there were no discontinuations due to rash.
Sulfa Allergy
Darunavir contains a sulfonamide moiety. PREZISTA should be used with caution in patients with a known sulfonamide allergy. In clinical studies with PREZISTA/ritonavir, the incidence and severity of rash were similar in subjects with or without a history of sulfonamide allergy.
Drug Interactions
See Table 6 for a listing of drugs that are contraindicated for use with PREZISTA/ritonavir due to potentially life-threatening adverse events, significant drug-drug interactions, or loss of therapeutic effect to PREZISTA . Please refer to Table 11 for established and other potentially significant drug-drug interactions.
Diabetes Mellitus / Hyperglycemia
New onset diabetes mellitus, exacerbation of pre-existing diabetes mellitus, and hyperglycemia have been reported during postmarketing surveillance in HIV-infected patients receiving protease inhibitor (PI) therapy. Some patients required either initiation or dose adjustments of insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents for treatment of these events. In some cases, diabetic ketoacidosis has occurred. In those patients who discontinued PI therapy, hyperglycemia persisted in some cases. Because these events have been reported voluntarily during clinical practice, estimates of frequency cannot be made and causal relationships between PI therapy and these events have not been established.
Fat Redistribution
Redistribution/accumulation of body fat, including central obesity, dorsocervical fat enlargement (buffalo hump), peripheral wasting, facial wasting, breast enlargement, and "cushingoid appearance" have been observed in patients receiving antiretroviral therapy. The mechanism and long-term consequences of these events are currently unknown. A causal relationship has not been established.
Immune Reconstitution Syndrome
Immune reconstitution syndrome has been reported in patients treated with combination antiretroviral therapy, including PREZISTA. During the initial phase of combination antiretroviral treatment, patients whose immune systems respond may develop an inflammatory response to indolent or residual opportunistic infections (such asMycobacterium avium infection, cytomegalovirus, Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia [PCP], or tuberculosis), which may necessitate further evaluation and treatment.
Autoimmune disorders (such as Graves' disease, polymyositis, and Guillain-Barré syndrome) have also been reported to occur in the setting of immune reconstitution; however, the time to onset is more variable, and can occur many months after initiation of antiretroviral treatment.
Hemophilia
There have been reports of increased bleeding, including spontaneous skin hematomas and hemarthrosis in patients with hemophilia type A and B treated with PIs. In some patients, additional factor VIII was given. In more than half of the reported cases, treatment with PIs was continued or reintroduced if treatment had been discontinued. A causal relationship between PI therapy and these episodes has not been established.
Resistance/Cross-Resistance
Because the potential for HIV cross-resistance among PIs has not been fully explored in PREZISTA/ritonavir treated patients, the effect therapy with PREZISTA will have on the activity of subsequently administered PIs is unknown.
Pediatric Patients
Do not administer PREZISTA/ritonavir in pediatric patients below 3 years of age in view of toxicity and mortality observed in juvenile rats dosed with darunavir (from 20 mg/kg to 1000 mg/kg) up to days 23 to 26 of age.[1]
References
Adapted from the FDA Package Insert.