Twice-a-year anti-HIV injection shows 100 per cent efficacy Study

New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) An HIV-preventive drug showed 100 per cent efficacy and "no safety concerns" in women, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
     Lenacapavir, injectable twice a year, is developed by the US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc. as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug. These drugs prevent the spread of infection in people not yet exposed to the disease-causing agent.
     The study, a phase-3 trial involving teenage girls and young women in South Africa and Uganda, showed that lenacapavir "demonstrated zero (HIV) infections" and "100 per cent efficacy," Gilead Sciences, Inc. said in a statement.
     HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, spreads from the body fluids of an infected person. Untreated, the infection can progress to AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome over years.
     In the PURPOSE 1 trial, 5,338 participants, who were HIV-negative, to begin with, were divided into three groups - 2,134 receiving lenacapavir injections 26 weeks apart; 2,136 receiving the daily oral tablet Descovy (F/TAF); and 1,068 receiving the daily oral tablet Truvada (F/TDF).
     Researchers, including those from the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, University of Cape Town, South Africa, observed a total of 55 infections - zero in the Lenacapavir group, 39 in the Desovy group and 16 in the Truvada group.
     "No participants receiving twice-yearly lenacapavir acquired HIV infection," the study authors wrote.
     The most common adverse effects were injection-site reactions experienced by close to 70 per cent of the participants in the Lenacapavir group. However, there were "no serious injection-site reactions," according to the statement.
     "These stellar results show that twice-yearly lenacapavir for PrEP, if approved, could offer a highly effective, tolerable and discreet choice that could potentially improve PrEP uptake and persistence, helping us to reduce HIV in cisgender women globally," first author Linda-Gail Bekker, Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Center at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, said in the statement.
     Results of PURPOSE 2 trial, involving cisgender men, transgender men, transgender women and gender non-binary individuals in countries, including Latin American ones, South Africa and Thailand, are expected in late 2024 or early 2025, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)