Open-label Study of Dolutegravir (DTG) or Efavirenz (EFV) for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - Tuberculosis (TB) Co-infection

HIV/Tuberculosis (TB) co-infection have profound effects on the host's immune system. TB is the most common cause of death in patients with HIV worldwide. Rifamycins (such as rifampicin \[RIF\]) are an important component of TB therapy because of their unique activity. The problem is that most protease inhibitors (PI) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) used to treat HIV have significant drug-drug interactions with RIF that can lead to reduced concentrations of these agents with risk of treatment failure or resistance. The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) efavirenz (EFV) does not present the same significant drug interactions with RIF. EFV-based HIV treatment was tested in patients concomitantly treated with RIF-containing TB therapy, demonstrating that their co-administration can be used safely and effectively. However, the side effect profile of EFV overlaps with the RIF-containing TB regimens and makes the management of treatment toxicities very complex. Integrase inhibitors (INI), such as dolutegravir (DTG), may offer an important alternative to EFV-based therapy in TB coinfected patients. A Phase I drug-drug interaction study was conducted in healthy, HIV-seronegative subjects, and showed that DTG at 50 mg twice daily given together with RIF was well-tolerated and resulted in DTG concentrations similar to those of DTG 50 mg given once daily alone, which is the recommended dose for INI-naive patients. Therefore, ART regimens using DTG 50 mg twice daily may represent a new treatment option for TB-infected patients who require concurrent treatment for HIV infection. This is a Phase III b, randomized, open-label study describing the efficacy and safety of DTG and EFV-containing ART regimens in HIV/TB co-infected patients. This study is designed to assess the antiviral activity of DTG or efavirenz (EFV) ART-containing regimens through 48 weeks. A total of approximately 115 +/-5% subjects will be randomly assigned in a 3: