Chemical interactions study of antiretroviral drugs efavirenz and lamivudine concerning the development of stable fixed-dose combination formulations for AIDS treatment

Lamivudine and efavirenz are among the most worldwide used drugs for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) treatment. Solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermo-optical analysis (TOA) were used to study possible interactions between these drugs, aiming the development of a fixed-dose drug combination. DSC and TOA have evidenced significant shifts on the melting points of both drugs in the mixture, which may be due to interaction between them. Although DSC and TOA results indicated incompatibility between the drugs, FTIR spectra were mostly unmodified due to overlapping peaks. The ssNMR analyses showed significant changes in chemical shifts values of the mixture when compared with spectra of pure drugs, especially in the signals relating to the deficient electron carbon atoms of both drugs. These results confirm the interactions suggested by DSC and TOA, which is probably due to acid-base interactions between electronegative and deficient electron atoms of both lamivudine and efavirenz. (author)