Trillium’s Role in AIDS Research Shared at International Conference

A few years ago, Trillium Health led a team that studied new injectable medications to treat AIDS.

We worked with researchers from Missouri, Arizona, New York City and North Carolina. Our results are going to be presented at the 25th International AIDS Conference, July 21-26 in Munich.

This is a big deal because we’re seeing a revolution in treatment. It’s a new era -- injectable medications are as important today as AZT was in those very early days.

Key point from study led by Trillium Health on injectable AIDS medications.

Our study included nearly 300 people across the country who were living with HIV. We asked them questions about their experiences with injectable treatment. We found that overall, patients accepted the drugs, were very interested in the drugs and stayed on the drugs that were given every two months.

There were very few dropouts. The drugs were well-tolerated and had good outcomes, including undetectable viral loads.

So it's looking like people are onto something in terms of HIV care with injectable drugs. We have injections every two months now, but in 2025 there’s a drug coming that will be every six months.

You may have seen TV ads for these injectable drugs because the pharmaceutical companies are doing direct marketing to patients.

But there's a difference between marketing and science. What we're doing is backing up the marketing claims that say these drugs really work and patients like them. Marketing, you know, is not always scientific. Our study isn’t promoting anything. We're talking about the science, which is important to know so that patients have access to better treatment and make better decisions for themselves. We’re still talking about trying to end the HIV epidemic. So this is an important piece.

Chuck Marbley, left, Dr. Michael Lecker and Dr. Steve Scheibel at Trillium’s poster presentation at the 2018 AIDS conference in Amsterdam. Provided by Dr. Bill Valenti

I've been to many of these conferences, starting in back in the late 1980s when we presented a case study of a patient with really obscure diseases.

In 2018, Trillium was here to talk about our PrEP program, drugs for pre-exposure prophylaxis.

Dr. Michael Lecker, who’s now in Washington, D.C., but at the time was our director of LGBT Health did the presentation and it was ahead of the curve. At that time, PrEP still was getting started. It’s a different story now.

The conference also draws celebrities to keep the attention on HIV.

In 2018 in Amsterdam, we heard from Elton John and Prince Harry.

Steve Scheibel, left, and Bill Valenti in Amsterdam in 2018. Provided by Dr. Bill Valenti

These conferences also are times to see old friends.

I caught up with Steve Scheibel and we spent time together.

I’m proud to say that Trillium led the way on this study. I’m not able to make the trip this year, but I’m happy to say that our research will be well represented by the rest of our research team.

You can follow the conference at iasociety.org/conferences/aids2024 and sign up for email updates at iasociety.org/conferences/aids2024/newsletter-sign.