Drug reduces HIV infections to zero in exams – Diario La Página – 2024-07-16 23:57:41

The World Well being Group (WHO) has welcomed medical trials which have for the primary time succeeded in decreasing HIV infections to zero in a check group utilizing an injectable drug, lenacapovir, and beneficial that the drug be made accessible worldwide if future trials proceed to indicate this “unbelievable efficacy.”

“We’re extraordinarily happy to study the outcomes of the medical trials,” mentioned WHO technical skilled on HIV/AIDS, Michelle Rodolph, at a press convention.

An important breakthrough in HIV prevention

Lenacapovir, produced by the American pharmaceutical firm Gilead, would solely require two injections a yr, and in trials it has achieved zero infections in a research group made up of cisgender ladies in Uganda and South Africa.

“We now stay up for the outcomes of the trials in males, which shall be introduced later this yr,” Rodolph mentioned, noting that Gilead has not but introduced the value of the drug or its arrival in the marketplace, however beneficial that it’s launched as rapidly as doable and at costs which might be reasonably priced for sufferers.

The WHO skilled burdened that the response to HIV/AIDS has concerned a coverage of guaranteeing therapy at a world stage via agreements with producers, strain in the marketplace and large-scale purchases to maintain costs low.

He additionally mentioned that “competitors via generic medication may be inspired by voluntary licensing, expertise and different measures to keep away from mental property obstacles.”

“Everybody ought to have the proper to entry life-saving merchandise, no matter the place they reside,” mentioned the skilled, who recalled that the WHO has labored with pharmaceutical firms with merchandise much like the one now being examined, resembling GSK, to make sure that costs should not excessive, “and can do the identical with Gilead.”

The lenacapavir trials, whose outcomes had been introduced on the finish of June, concerned 5,300 cisgender grownup and adolescent ladies who obtained both that drug or different Gilead preventive medication, however administered orally and day by day, Descovy and Truvada.

No infections had been reported within the lenacapovir group, whereas within the teams utilizing the opposite two manufacturers the incidence of infections ranged from 1.69 to 2.02 %.