Stay on treatment

Staying on Track With Your HIV Treatment

When you decide with your healthcare professional that you should take HIV medicines, it is very important that you take your HIV medications according to your healthcare professional’s directions, including:

  • What time your medication should be taken
  • Whether it should be taken with food or on an empty stomach
  • If you should avoid taking it with other medicines

Taking medicines correctly can have a significant impact on how well your HIV medicines work. When a dose of medicine is skipped, it gives the virus the opportunity to copy itself and spread more rapidly (increasing the viral load). Keeping the viral load as low as possible may help slow the progression of HIV. Missing doses could also lead to resistance. This is when HIV mutates or changes and stops responding to the medicine.

Follow your healthcare professional’s instructions carefully. Staying on your HIV treatment as directed can help you get the most out of your HIV therapy. Sometimes a busy schedule and other things on your mind can make it hard to remember to take your medicine. These suggestions may help:

  • Connect your pills with something you do every day. For example, always take them after brushing your teeth or eating a meal
  • Keep your pills in a pillbox and carry them with you when you go out. This way, wherever you are, you’ll always have them handy
  • Use beepers, computer reminders, telephone reminders, watches, anything that trains you to remember. Forgetting is the most common reason for missing pills
  • Place a reminder note near something you use very day—the milk, your toothbrush, the TV. When you see the note, you’ll remember to take your medicine
  • Stick a magnet on the refrigerator to remind you to take your medicine. You can also use sticky notes or something only you recognize
  • Make an appointment with a treatment counselor for support. Talking to professionally trained counselors can make things easier
  • Talk with friends about your pills. It makes it easier to take them when the people around you know how important they are for your long-term health
  • Make sure you refill your prescriptions from your healthcare professional regularly. Contact your healthcare professional if you run out of your HIV medications and need emergency doses of your antiretroviral treatment

About PREZISTA®

PREZISTA® (darunavir) is a prescription medicine. It is one treatment option in the class of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) medicines known as protease inhibitors.

PREZISTA® is always taken with and at the same time as ritonavir (Norvir®), in combination with other HIV medicines for the treatment of HIV infection in adults. PREZISTA® should also be taken with food.

  • The use of other medicines active against HIV in combination with PREZISTA®/ritonavir (Norvir®) may increase your ability to fight HIV. Your healthcare professional will work with you to find the right combination of HIV medicines
  • It is important that you remain under the care of your healthcare professional during treatment with PREZISTA®

PREZISTA® does not cure HIV infection or AIDS and you may continue to experience illnesses associated with HIV-1 infection, including opportunistic infections. You should remain under the care of a doctor when using PREZISTA®.

Please read Important Safety Information below, and talk to your healthcare professional to learn if PREZISTA® is right for you.

Important Safety Information

What is the most important information I should know about PREZISTA®?

  • PREZISTA® can interact with other medicines and cause serious side effects. See "Who should not take PREZISTA®?"

  • PREZISTA® may cause liver problems. Some people taking PREZISTA®, together with Norvir® (ritonavir), have developed liver problems which may be life-threatening. Your healthcare professional should do blood tests before and during your combination treatment with PREZISTA®. If you have chronic hepatitis B or C infection, your healthcare professional should check your blood tests more often because you have an increased chance of developing liver problems
  • Tell your healthcare professional if you have any of these signs and symptoms of liver problems: dark (tea-colored) urine, yellowing of your skin or whites of your eyes, pale-colored stools (bowel movements), nausea, vomiting, pain or tenderness on your right side below your ribs, or loss of appetite
  • PREZISTA® may cause a severe or life-threatening skin reaction or rash. Sometimes these skin reactions and skin rashes can become severe and require treatment in a hospital. You should call your healthcare professional immediately if you develop a rash. However, stop taking PREZISTA® and ritonavir combination treatment and call your healthcare professional immediately if you develop any skin changes with these symptoms: fever, tiredness, muscle or joint pain, blisters or skin lesions, mouth sores or ulcers, red or inflamed eyes, like “pink eye.” Rash occurred more often in patients taking PREZISTA® and raltegravir together than with either drug separately, but was generally mild

Who should not take PREZISTA®?

  • Do not take PREZISTA® if you are taking the following medicines: alfuzosin (Uroxatral®), dihydroergotamine (D.H.E.45®, Embolex®, Migranal®), ergonovine, ergotamine (Cafergot®, Ergomar®), methylergonovine, cisapride (Propulsid®), pimozide (Orap®), oral midazolam, triazolam (Halcion®), the herbal supplement St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), lovastatin (Mevacor®, Altoprev®, Advicor ®), simvastatin (Zocor®;, Simcor®, Vytorin®), rifampin (Rifadin®, Rifater®, Rifamate®, Rimactane®), sildenafil (Revatio®) when used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, indinavir (Crixivan®), lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra®), saquinavir (Invirase®), or telaprevir (Incivek™)
  • Before taking PREZISTA®, tell your healthcare professional if you are taking sildenafil (Viagra®, Revatio®), vardenafil (Levitra®, Staxyn®), tadalafil (Cialis®, Adcirca®), atorvastatin (Lipitor®), rosuvastatin (Crestor®), pravastatin (Pravachol®), or colchicine (Colcrys®, Col-Probenecid®). Tell your healthcare professional if you are taking estrogenbased contraceptives (birth control). PREZISTA® might reduce the effectiveness of estrogen-based contraceptives. You must take additional precautions for birth control, such as condoms

    This is not a complete list of medicines. Be sure to tell your healthcare professional about all the medicines you are taking or plan to take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

What should I tell my doctor before I take PREZISTA®?

  • Before taking PREZISTA®, tell your healthcare professional if you have any medical conditions, including liver problems (including hepatitis B or C), allergy to sulfa medicines, diabetes, or hemophilia
  • Tell your healthcare professional if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding
    • The effects of PREZISTA® on pregnant women or their unborn babies are not known. You and your healthcare professional will need to decide if taking PREZISTA® is right for you
    • Do not breastfeed. It is not known if PREZISTA® can be passed to your baby in your breast milk and whether it could harm your baby. Also, mothers with HIV should not breastfeed because HIV can be passed to your baby in the breast milk

What are the possible side effects of PREZISTA®?

  • High blood sugar, diabetes or worsening of diabetes, and increased bleeding in people with hemophilia have been reported in patients taking protease inhibitor medicines, including PREZISTA®
  • Changes in body fat have been seen in some patients taking HIV medicines, including PREZISTA®. The cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known at this time
  • Changes in your immune system can happen when you start taking HIV medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden
  • The most common side effects related to taking PREZISTA® include diarrhea, nausea, rash, headache, stomach pain, and vomiting. This is not a complete list of all possible side effects. If you experience these or other side effects, talk to your healthcare professional. Do not stop taking PREZISTA® or any other medicines without first talking to your healthcare professional

 

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the US FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1−800−FDA−1088.

Please refer to the ritonavir (Norvir®) Product Information (PI and PPI) for additional information on precautionary measures.

Please see accompanying full Product Information for more details.

Together RX Access Partnership for Prescription Assistance Medicare RX Prescription Drug Coverage Access2wellness

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