Bi-monthly Injection to Prevent H.I.V. Works Better Than Daily Pill in Women

[Cosmicdancer]

A single shot given every two months has proved to be more effective than a daily pill at preventing H.I.V. in women, researchers reported on Monday, an advance that medical experts hailed as groundbreaking in the fight against the deadly virus that causes AIDS.

The finding that the long-acting drug would prevent H.I.V. in six doses taken over a year instead of the 365 required for the prevention pill currently on the market was so convincing the researchers decided to end their clinical trial of the drug early.

“It’s a game changer for women,” said Dr. Sigal Yawetz, an expert on women with H.I.V. at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who was not involved in the trial.

Later the article states...
The randomized, double-blind clinical trial was conducted by the H.I.V. Prevention Trials Network, an international collaborative funded by the National Institutes of Health. The trial compared the injected drug, called cabotegravir, with Truvada in 3,223 participants in 20 sites across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of the women who received Truvada, 34 became infected with H.I.V. during the trial, compared with just four of the women receiving the injections; two of those four women had stopped taking the injections, Dr. Smith said.

After an interim analysis showed that the long-acting injection was 89 percent more effective than Truvada, an independent data safety monitoring board recommended that the trial be stopped early.

“I am extremely excited about the findings of this study, and I have to admit that I was on razor’s edge waiting for these results,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an H.I.V. expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the trial.

The drug does not need to be refrigerated, so mobile clinics and community centers can offer it to women or bundle it with injectable birth control, Dr. Gandhi said.

Full article here
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/health/HIV-shot-prep-women.html