Novel medication could eliminate HIV infections

Lenacapavir may be effective at preventing HIV infections in cisgender adolescent and young adult female patients.

The novel medication is a twice-yearly injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor.

In a study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers enrolled 5,345 female patients aged 16 to 26 years who were HIV negative. The patients were randomly assigned to receive either subcutaneous lenacapavir every 26 weeks, daily oral emtricitabine-tenofovir alafenamide or daily oral emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.

In the primary efficacy analysis, the researchers discovered that lenacapavir reduced the incidence of HIV by 100% and resulted in zero infections over 1,939 person-years, a measure of the number of patients examined multiplied by the time each of them spent in the study. Further, lenacapavir was deemed safe in this patient population — with mild injection-site reactions being the most common adverse events. The drug also had the lowest rate of serious adverse events compared with the other treatment options.

The findings demonstrated lenacapavir’s potential to address gaps in pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake and adherence among female patients globally.

Read more: The New England Journal of Medicine

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