HIV Prevention: New Injection Given Every 8 Weeks Can Replace Daily PrEP Pills

An injection given every two months found to be very effective in preventing HIV transmission, claims a new study.

Currently, there are nearly 1.1 million individuals living with HIV in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug, preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is being used to prevent HIV since 2012 and has proved to be effective in reducing the risk of sexually transmitting HIV by up to 99%.

The new research pointed out that this new injection can replace the need to pop pills daily and can be as effective as PrEP.

"I think a lot of people don't want to take the pill because it interferes with their daily activities or because they don't want pill bottles laying around the house for everyone to see," Brandon Jackson, one of the study participants told Tech Times.

Key features of the new injection:

• If PrEP isn’t taken daily, its effectiveness at HIV prevention reduces. That’s not the case with the new injection
• There are several reasons why people don’t want to pop a pill every day- including the logistics of getting refills, remembering to take them daily and also the stigma associated with having an HIV drug at home
• The new injection might prevent people from being questioned why they have an anti-HIV drug bottle at home or why they are taking one every day
• Some people might not be intuitive to pop a pill on a daily basis and this issue might be addressed by this new injection

The Study:

The HPTN 083 study compared a new medication named ‘cabotegravir’ injected once every eight weeks against an HIV prevention drug called Truvada which is already FDA-approved for everyday use.

The findings suggested that the new injection is just as effective or might be slightly more efficient in preventing HIV transmission.

The researchers opine that the injection is much easier than a daily pill.

"I probably wouldn't take a daily pill. I am a fan of the shots; it's difficult to be 100% adherent to the pills and easy to miss a dosage. The shots are much more convenient," Jackson told Tech Times.

During the current pandemic situation, doctors treating HIV are particularly thrilled about this news.

"We know PrEP works. Compliance is the real kicker. The crux of this study is that it takes something that works and makes it better because of compliance,” Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health told ABC News.