A new HIV prevention study has found that twice-a-year injections of a new antiviral drug, called lenacapavir, completely protected women from contracting HIV. Findings of the the PURPOSE 1 HIV prevention study among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa and Uganda was released on Thursday by Gilead Sciences. Gilead is the developer of the lenacapavir, one of the HIV prevention drugs that was being studied in the trial.
In the study, none of the 2,134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV. By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women who received the long-running daily pill Truvada contracted HIV. And 39 out of 2,136 women who received a newer daily pill called Descovy developed HIV.
An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB), at a scheduled review of the trial data, found the regimen to be safe and highly effective, with no infections seen among trial participants who received injectable lenacapavir. The trial enrolled more than 5,300 individuals across 28 sites to receive lenacapavir or either one of Gilead’s daily oral PrEP drugs, Descovy and Truvada. While no infections happened during the trial period among more than 2,000 women in the lenacapavir group, the Descovy group recorded an incidence rate of 2.
02 per 100 person-years and the Truvada group 1.69 per 100 person-years. “While we know traditional HIV prevention options are highly effective when taken as prescribed, twice-yearly lenacapavir for PrEP could help address the stigma and discrim.