Effect of gender and race on the week 48 findings in treatment-naive, HIV-1-infected patients enrolled in the randomized, phase III trials ECHO and THRIVE

Objectives A week 48 efficacy and safety analysis with respect to gender and race was conducted using pooled data from the phase III, double-blind, double-dummy efficacy comparison in treatment-naive, HIV-infected subjects of TMC278 and efavirenz (ECHO) and TMC278 against HIV, in a once-daily regimen versus efavirenz (THRIVE) trials. Methods Treatment-naive, HIV-1-infected adults were randomized to receive rilpivirine (RPV; TMC278) 25?mg once a day (qd), or efavirenz (EFV) 600?mg qd, plus tenofovir/emtricitabine (ECHO) or tenofovir/emtricitabine, zidovudine/lamivudine or abacavir/lamivudine (THRIVE). Results A total of 1368 participants (76% male and 61% White, of those with available race data) were randomized and treated. No gender-related differences in response rate (percentage of patients with HIV-1 viral load