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South Africans living with HIV who paid to have antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivered had higher rates of viral suppression than those who got their medication at a clinic, a researcher said.
In a randomized trial of 162 people living with HIV, 88% of those randomized to home delivery of ART experienced viral suppression (defined as viral loads less than 100 copies/ml) versus 74% of those randomized to clinic visits (RR 1.21, 95% CI 1.02-1.42), reported Ruanne Barnabas, MBChB, DPhil, of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Moreover, these differences in viral suppression were more pronounced among South African men (64% in clinic group vs 84% in home group, RR 1.31, 95% CI 1.01-1.71), she said in a late-breaking presentation at the virtual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI).
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The FDA approved the first long-acting injectable therapy for people living with HIV, the agency said late Thursday.
Injectable cabotegravir-rilpivirine (Cabenuva) was approved for people with HIV who are virologically suppressed on a stable antiviral regimen with no history of treatment failure. It is administered once a month. Having this treatment available for some patients provides an alternative for managing this chronic condition, John Farley, MD, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
In addition, the FDA approved a tablet formulation of cabotegravir (Vocabria), which the agency said should be taken with currently approved oral rilpivirine (Edurant) for a month prior to starting injectable cabotegravir-rilpivirine to ensure the medication is well tolerated.