International AIDS Conference Delivered Big News on Injectable Medications
When people come together from all over the world to talk about HIV/AIDS, we look for something big, exciting and new to come out of the conversation.
Well, the 25th International AIDS Conference that ran July 21-26 in Munich lived up to expectations.
People from around the world came to Munich, which is a reminder of how big the community – and effort – really is.
We got good news about injectable drugs to prevent HIV.
The drug, lenacapavir, is given every six months. The initial study was done among women in Uganda and South Africa. They took the drug over the course of a couple of years and researchers followed them to see the effects. Researchers also followed two other groups of women who took the pills Descovy or Truvada.
What do you think happened?
Transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus particles (colorized orange/yellow) replicating from an HIV-infected H9 T-cell (green). Credit: NIAID
There were no new infections among the women who used lenacapavir. None. Zero.
That is big news, because it overcomes the many number of problems that people have with taking pills. It strikes at having people covered continuously to protect from HIV. And this is an important piece in ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.
This has global impact. But we need to realize that not all countries have the resources to distribute the medications that are coming down the pipeline. We need to be equitable in how we make them available. The current marketed price of this drug is $42,000 a year for both shots. That’s not going to fly in low-income countries. So we need to talk about a generic or somehow limiting the price.
But the fact that the drug showed such promise is big news. The drug could be available in 2025. But it still needs more study, and researchers are looking at transgender men and women, and men who have sex with men.
All told, these four studies will give us needed information about what is a revolution in HIV prevention and treatment.