Stribild works quickly to drop levels of HIV-1 in the blood; however, it may take several months of treatment for viral loads to become undetectable. Stribild is an effective treatment for HIV and generally, studies have shown that during the first two months of antiviral therapy an HIV-positive person’s viral load should drop a minimum of 90 percent. Within four to 6 months, levels of the virus should have dropped further. Specific studies investigating the effectiveness of Stribild have been a minimum of 48 weeks duration. These have shown that after 48 weeks of treatment with Stribild, 94% of people have achieved virologic success, which is defined in these studies as an HIV-1 RNA of <50 copies/mL.

Stribild is a combination tablet containing elvitegravir, emtricitabine, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), and cobicistat, which may be given as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults and pediatric patients aged 12 years of age and older weighing at least 35 kg. Elvitegravir is an integrase inhibitor; emtricitabine and tenofovir are nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and cobicistat boosts the activity of elvitegravir. The three antivirals (elvitegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir) work together to suppress the HIV-1 virus.

Stribild is taken as a single tablet once a day with food.