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Pharmacokinetic data indicated that an implant that elutes islatravir, an antiretroviral agent, could protect people at-risk of contracting HIV for at least a year, positioning it as a potential form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), researchers reported.
In a trial in which people at low risk of HIV-infection were implanted with three different doses of islatravir, blood levels of islatravir remained well above the level considered sufficient for protection against infection at week 12, according to Randolph Matthews, MD, PhD, a senior scientist at Merck in Kenilworth New Jersey.
The largest dose – 56 mg – was projected to yield adequate islatravir blood levels for almost all individuals for at least 52 weeks, he said in his oral presentation at the virtual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI).
Expanding the range of options to prevent HIV is key
By Shobha Shukla || Citizen News Service CNS LISTEN
FEB 3, 2021
While the currently available HIV prevention and treatment tools have helped reduce new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths by 23% and 39% respectively since 2010, we still have a long way to go before ending this epidemic. With 1.7 million new HIV infections and 690,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2019, one cannot but overemphasize the urgent need to have more HIV prevention options, including long-acting HIV prevention strategies that might prove to be more acceptable and user friendly to people from diverse communities.
Topping the list is the much-awaited long-acting dapivirine vaginal ring that has finally seen the light of the day and is under regulatory approval processes of several countries. This long-acting female-oriented HIV prevention option is designed to be used by women discreetly. It is a silicon ring impregnated with dapivirine which a woman c
Having Wide Range of Options to Prevent HIV is Vital by Angela Mohan on February 3, 2021 at 3:32 PM
Various promising preventive options for HIV are available, which might prove to be more acceptable and user friendly to people from diverse communities.
Long-acting dapivirine vaginal ring that has finally seen the light of the day and is under regulatory approval processes of several countries. This long-acting female-oriented HIV prevention option is designed to be used by women discreetly. This silicon ring protects from acquiring HIV for 28 days at a time. The ring has to be replaced once every month.
Other promising products include long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for women and Islatravir as a once-monthly PrEP pill, as well as a promising new method to induce broadly neutralising antibodies (bNAbs) that could help speed HIV vaccine development.
Shobha Shukla - CNS
While the currently available HIV prevention and treatment tools have helped reduce new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths by 23% and 39% respectively since 2010, we still have a long way to go before ending this epidemic. With 1.7 million new HIV infections and 690,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2019, one cannot but over emphasise the urgent need to have more HIV prevention options, including long-acting HIV prevention strategies that might prove to be more acceptable and user friendly to people from diverse communities.
Topping the list is the much-awaited long-acting dapivirine vaginal ring that has finally seen the light of the day and is under regulatory approval processes of several countries. This long acting female oriented HIV prevention option is designed to be used by women discreetly. It is a silicon ring impregnated with dapivirine which a woman can insert in her vagina and be protected from acquiring HIV for 28 days at a time. The ring has to b
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or known simply by PrEP , is a common antiviral drug. (Getty)
An experimental HIV drug that could be used as a once-monthly PrEP has passed an important first step.
Islatravir is a new antiretroviral drug currently in early stages of testing that researchers believe could have extraordinary capacity to persist in the body, meaning it would need to be taken far less frequently than existing, daily regimens. As a HIV treatment it may only need to be taken once a week, and just once a month as PrEP.
Though it faces many more tests, including human efficacy studies, results of a study to test the drug’s persistence in the body were revealed on Tuesday (26 January) at the HIV Research for Prevention virtual conference.