Early trials of lenacapavir, a drug for HIV prevention that needs to be administered only once a year, have been completed in the United States. Its developer, Gilead, reports that one year after the injection, drug concentrations in participants’ blood remained at a protective level.
Lenacapavir has been found safe and has demonstrated an unusually long duration of action. The drug has already shown 100% efficacy among women and girls and 96% among men and gender-nonconforming people when administered twice a year.
Developing an HIV vaccine remains a difficult task because the virus is highly variable and can hide in the body. Long-acting drugs are therefore becoming a real source of hope. An annual injection could make life easier for people, make prevention more convenient and accessible, and become a decisive step toward eradicating the virus.
