Question

I have a question about interactions with my HIV meds?

17 March 2026. Related: All topics, Drug interactions.

Answer

Answer: Simon Collins

i-Base gets lots of questions about possible drug interactions.

These notes have links that can help.

Interactions with other medicines

It is always good to check that your HIV meds won’t be affected by other things you take.

The best way to do this is to tell your HIV clinic about any other meds that you take. This should also include any supplements or recreational/street drugs. The doctor or pharmacist at the clinic will treat this information in confidence.

Your meds should come with a leaflet that includes the main interactions. If you don’t get printed information, please talk to your pharmacist when you are collecting your meds.

Using the Liverpool University website

It is easy to check for drug interactions using the online checker at Liverpool University HIV website:
hiv-druginteractions.org/checker

This leading resource is easy to use and includes a detailed report if there are any concerns.

1. Select your HIV meds from the menu in the left column.
2. Select the interaction meds from the co-medication centre column.
3. The interaction results are instantly generated in the right column.
4. Click ‘more info’ to get more details about each drug interaction. It also includes details about any research studies and the quality of the evidence.
5. Click ‘Download PDF’ for an individual printout of these results. You can also take this to show your doctor.

The results use a traffic light system.

• Red means there is a serious interaction.
• Orange or amber means there is a potential concern and includes these details.
• Green means there is no interaction.

Drug interactions with food

Most HIV drugs do not interact with food, so it is okay to eat and drink a normal diet.

But food can affect the way the some HIV drugs are absorbed by your body.

Please follow any information about taking your meds with or without food though. This is an important part of adherence.

If you need to take your meds with food, this is needed to get the right drug levels.

Drug interactions with supplements

Unless the supplement is widely used and known to cause interactions, there might not be any information of studies with your HIV meds.

This is why i-Base do not recommend using supplements including herbs unless they are prescribed by your HIV doctor.

One important interaction involves supplements that contain calcium, magnesium or aluminium and some HIV integrase inhibitors. This involves separating the times you take your meds. Please see the individual information on each drug at links here to see whether this affects your meds: dolutegravir, bictegravir, raltegravir, elvitegravir and cabotegravir.

Otherwise, most of these products have no evidence that they will do you any good. They are sold by suggestive advertising and not supported by facts.

Supplements included in the Liverpool website

This website continually add and updates data on drug interactions, so the list below might not be comprehensive.

As an example, the site currently includes 65 herbs, vitamins and supplements. Please use the Liverpool website directly for interactions between your HIV meds and any of the list below.