The HIV drug optimization agenda: promoting standards for earlier investigation and approvals of antiretroviral drugs for use in adolescents living with HIV.

Adolescents may not present with significantly different pharmacokinetic characteristics from those in adults. Including HIV-positive adolescents in phase 3 ARV clinical trials, either with adults or in specific adolescent studies conducted in parallel, would allow adolescents to access promising, more effective treatment for HIV years earlier than with the current stepwise approach.