In this study, subjects were recruited who were failing their HIV regimen. These patients were on HIV medicines that were no longer working for them but they had few treatment options to switch to.
They had detectable virus in their blood. In the first part of the study, Lenacapravir was added to the failing HIV regimen. By simply adding Lenacapravir, the patients got on average 100-fold reduction in the amount of HIV in the blood at the end of two weeks.
This allowed the researchers to observe how powerful Lenacapravir was as a single drug against HIV.
The regimen was then strengthened by adding other HIV drugs that might still have some effectiveness to the Lenacapravir. In starting this phase of the study, we find another remarkable feature of Lenacapravir.
The drug can be taken every 6-months…….not every six days, not every 6 weeks but every six months! At the end of 6-months on treatment, 73% of the patients were undetectable, that is, completely suppressed.
Lenacapravir doesn’t have many side-effects or major toxicities (at least so far). It could be a real game changer for folks who are running low on options for treatment or folks who don’t do well taking pills every day.
We have already approved our first long-acting combination injectable that can be dosed on a monthly basis (see my article on Cabanuva).
It seems like we are getting more and more options for powerful medicines that are easier to take. You’ll be hearing a lot more about Lenacapravir so stay tuned.