Clinical Opportunities and Management to Exploit Biktarvy as Asynchronous Connection Key (COMEBACK)

Overview

COMEBACK is an investigator-initiated, 48-week study. The study will be conducted in 100 persons living with HIV (PLWH) who have been off ART for two or more weeks. All enrolled participants will be prescribed Biktarvy, if determined appropriate upon review of past historical resistance tests, for use throughout the study period. Participants will also complete a series of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) at screening and be assigned one of three tiers of case management intervention (Piggyback, Got Your Back, Backbone), with each tier increasing in intensity regarding intervention techniques and options provided. Participants will be assessed for virologic suppression, retention in care, and PROS throughout study follow up and at study end.

In most settings in the US when patients out of care and off of ART reengage with clinical providers routine labs are collected, including CMP, CD4, VL, and HIV resistance testing when indicated, healthcare benefits are reassessed, and the most recent ART regimen is restarted if the patient agrees to treatment. There may be characteristics of these regimens that may present barriers to sufficient adherence, or perform suboptimally in patients with certain immunologic and/or viral factors, which may impact virologic suppression, including multiple pills, drug-drug interactions, variable tolerability, low CD4, high VL, or low thresholds for resistance. Biktarvy is a Single Tablet Regimen (STR) with high potency and good tolerability that can be safely used in multiple patient groups, with features, including activity in patients with a history of multi-class resistance, that may facilitate immediate ART reinitiation among a broad population of patients reengaging in care in order to promote rapid virologic suppression. Addressing this important patient population with poor retention with support mechanisms to reengage in care and reinitiate effective ART immediately may improve retention in care and accelerate virologic suppression as likewise derived in immediate ART models in treatment-naïve patients, and represent a touchstone to drive sustainability in preventing new HIV transmissions in a high burden area to meet the goals of reducing HIV as a public health threat over the next 10 years.