Ok, you’re probably tired of me promising that long-acting antiretroviral therapy would soon be available through your doctor.
The product I’ve been talking about the most is a combination of the drugs cabotegravir and rilpivirine. Cabotegravir is an integrase inhibitor, in the same class as dolutegravir (in products like Triumeq, Dovato, Juluca ) and bictegravir (in Bictarvy). Ripivirine (in Complera and Juluca) is a non-nucleoside analogue in the same class as drugs like Efavirenz (in Atripla), Etravirine (Intellence) and Doravirine (Pilfeltro).
The medical community was really expecting the Food and Drug Administration to approve this long-acting therapy for once-monthly dosing in December; a sort of Christmas present. However, the approval was delayed but fortunately not related to issues of drug safety or effectiveness. In the meantime, there have been some positive developments.
A study presented in March at the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections , the top HIV research conference (presented as a virtual conference) had more good news. They showed that the injectable combination treatment was effective for two months from a single injection. The drug preparation is…
