‘Miracle' Aids drug ‘may give protection for a year'
A new drug hailed as a leap forward against the HIV/Aids epidemic may be able to protect people for twice as long as first thought, new research suggests.
Lenacapavir was named the 2024 scientific breakthrough of the year after trials showed a subcutaneous injection every six months provided total protection against catching the HIV virus.
Research published in the Lancet medical journal has now found the drug is safe and persists in the body for more than a year if injected deep into a patient's muscle.
The authors of the peer-reviewed paper said their findings 'show the potential for biomedical HIV prevention with a once-yearly dosing interval'.
After decades of trying, scientists are yet to come up with an effective vaccine against the HIV virus that causes Aids, and the infection still kills an average of one person each minute.
However there have been breakthroughs in protective anti-HIV treatments, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP), which stop people catching the virus.
Previous versions of PrEP have been short term, meaning people can still get infected if they forget to adhere to a daily dose of pills.
Long-lasting PrEP is considered more effective because people are less likely to forget to take it. It is also more discreet for patients worried about stigma, because they do not need to keep large quantities of medicine at home, or make frequent trips to a clinic.
A large clinical trial spanning South Africa and Uganda last year reported Lenacapavir injections provided total protection in young African women for six months at a time.
The results were so clear cut that researchers stopped the trial early and Winnie Byanyima, head of the United Nations Aids body, UNAIDS, described Lenacapavir as a 'miracle product'.
The new study by scientists at the Gilead Sciences' pharma giant behind Lenacapavir looked at the safety of giving 40 patients intramuscular injections and whether the drug stayed in their systems.
Researchers found that after 56 weeks, drug levels in the patients were still higher than those associated with HIV protection in the earlier trials.
The authors said their findings suggested a one-yearly injection would be just as effective as the six-monthly jab.
No clinically significant safety concerns were identified, the research said.
Lenacapavir had already been used as a treatment of last resort in a small number of patients infected with HIV and was last year estimated to cost patients more than $40,000 (£31,000) a year in countries including the United States, France, Norway and Australia.
The high price led to fears poorer countries would be unable to afford it.
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in December said it would join forces with the American government's anti-HIV campaign to supply affordable doses of the drug.
The fund has said it will since roll out the jab with or without US help after Donald Trump put much of his country's international aid on pause.
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