The R4P2018 conference included a wealth of studies looking at broadly neutralising monoclonal antibody (bNAbs) for HIV prevention.
A selection of these studies reported below shows the complexities of this research which is important given large-scale studies are already ongoing.
In the first presentation in a session at R4P2018 looking at using bNAbs for prevention, Pilar Mendoza from the Rockefeller University presented results on the impact of a combination of two antibodies in HIV positive people on ART who then took an analytic treatment interruption (ATI).
The properties of long-acting PrEP drugs that reduce the need for daily dosing also presents a new set of challenges if and when people decide to stop.
When LA drugs are used for treatment, this is less of a problem, as HIV positive people will usually be switching to an alternative drug combination.
On 15 August 2018, top-line results from the phase 3 ATLAS study reported that monthly injections with the dual long-acting formulation cabotegravir/rilpivirine were non-inferior as a switch option compared to remaining on triple-drug ART.
The Antiretroviral Therapy as Long Acting Suppression (ATLAS) study randomised 570 HIV positive adults who had been virally suppressed for more than six months on their first or second HIV combination.
On 6 June 2018, without news from the US FDA, a press release from Frontier Biotech announced the approval of a new HIV drug in China that is given by once-weekly injection.
This is a rare example of an HIV treatment not being first approved in either the US or Europe.
A guide written and compiled by Simon Collins for HIV i-Base, a treatment activist group providing easy to read, up-to-date guides to HIV treatment, and sexual transmission and testing of HIV.
Question: I was wondering if there is any hope for a longer term medication. I mean a medication or an injection where you take it a few times a year – or even every few years – and not every day of your life?
Question: Hi, do you know when injectable monthly medications and implants will become available in the UK? A doctor at a workshop I attended in November 2017 suggested it could be 2018. Is this realistic?
Optimal doses of long-acting injectable antiretrovirals cabotegravir and rilpivirine were predicted for different weight bands in children and adolescents.
Long-acting injectable antiretrovirals could be future alternatives to oral formulations and might help to address adherence. There is great interest in the potential use of these formulations in the treatment of paediatric HIV.
Longer follow-up results from using the first coformulated injectable ART were presented from the phase 2b LATTE study. [1]
Following a lead period that included using oral formulations of cabotegravir and rilpivirine, 286 treatment-naive participants were randomised (2:2:1) to either 8-weekly (8W) or 4-weekly (4W) injections, or to oral cabotegravir plus abacavir/3TC.