Once-monthly HIV injection could be on the horizon

Results from GSK sUBSidiary ViiV Healthcare’s phase-III studies FLAIR and ATLAS, involving cabotegravir and rilpivirine, could result in a once-monthly HIV antiretroviral becoming available if regulatory clearance is granted. GSK say that the long-acting two-drug injection has similar efficacy to the daily three pills currently given to people with HIV-1.
Professor Chloe Orkin, an HIV specialist at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Reducing the cumulative toxicity over a life course, in terms of the number of drugs you put into the body, is of great interest to patients.”
John Pottage, ViiV’s chief medical officer, said: “If approved, this two-drug regimen would give people living with HIV one month between each dose of antiretroviral therapy, changing HIV treatment from 365 dosing days per year, to just 12.”