Livalo (Alipza)

People living with HIV have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. At present, little is known about preventive strategies that can prevent cardiovascular diseases in this group. The results of the phase III study REPRIEVE recently appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine. This study investigated the preventive effect of Livalo (Alipza) in preventing serious cardiovascular events in people living with HIV.

People living with HIV have about a 50% higher risk of a heart attack compared to people without HIV. The risk of heart failure is also 50% higher in people living with HIV versus people without HIV. In addition, the risk of stroke seems slightly increased after HIV infection and people living with HIV have a greatly increased risk of pulmonary hypertension.

Livalo (Pitavastatin)
The median age of participants was 50 years (interquartile range [IKB]: 45-55), with a median CD4 count of 621 cells/mm3 (IKB: 448-827) and undetectable HIV RNA in 87.5% of participants. The study was terminated early after a median follow-up period of 5.1 years (IKB: 4.3-5.9) due to the demonstrated efficacy of the intervention. In the Pitavastatin group, the incidence of serious cardiovascular events was 4.81 per 1,000 person-years, compared with 7.32 in the placebo group (HR [95%-BI]: 0.65 [0.48-0.80]; p=0.002). Muscle-related adverse events were seen in 91 participants (2.3%) in the pitavastatin group, compared with 51 (1.4%) participants in the placebo group. Diabetes mellitus was observed in 206 (5.3%) participants in the pitavastatin group and 155 (4.0%) participants in the placebo group.

The randomized, placebo-controlled phase III trial REPRIEVE has shown that treatment with Livalo can reduce the risk of a serious cardiovascular event in people living with HIV.