A clinical trial by drugmaker Gilead conducted a randomized study on 5,300 cisgender women in South Africa and Uganda. Of the participants, 2,134 received a twice yearly injection of lenacapavir. The trial began in August 2021, and to date no woman who received the injections has contracted HIV, compared to 2% of the women taking oral medication.
A daily oral pill called pre-exposure prophylaxis is commonly used to prevent HIV. It can be 99% effective in stopping new HIV infections from sex. However, use of the pill can be infrequent for some users due to stigma, the report said.
Lenacapavir has been approved by the FDA for HIV treatment since 2022, but this is the first clinical trial to use it as prevention. The results were significant enough that the Data Monitoring Committee — an independent group that assesses the progress of clinical trials — urged Gilead to halt the blind trial and provide injections for all participants.
The study has not been peer reviewed.
The company is working on a trial that will analyze the drug’s efficacy among cisgender men, transgender men and women and nonbinary individuals in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the U.S., according to NPR
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