VIDEO: PURPOSE study biggest development from International AIDS Conference 2024

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Well, I think one way to answer that, is to look at what just happened at the International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2024, which was the 25th of the international meetings that we've been having. And that's where people present new and breaking things. I was unable to go, but when I looked at what happened, and listened to people like Dr. Sachs, who evaluated and was there, the PURPOSE study is probably the one that got the most attention, and that's about long-acting PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis. And in fact, if you look at the contents of the meeting and what was presented, PrEP was overwhelmingly popular in terms of what people are looking at.

And I think if you go back, it's important, because ending the HIV epidemic was predicated largely on the fact that they thought people would sign up and be on PrEP. But in the US at least, PrEP has not taken off the way it should in terms of how it could prevent new incidents of infection. And especially the use of Cabotegravir, which is the long-acting injectable every two months for PrEP, has not taken off like it should. Even though when you lose satisfaction studies, which they did in HPTN 083, 96% of the people who were on PrEP would prefer the injectable as opposed to the pill. And yet we're just not seeing it happen. It was largely because of logistics. So looking for something else that's long-acting and injectable that doesn't require coming into the office every two months for shots is what most people are looking at.

And the PURPOSE study looked at that it was Lenacapavir every six months sub-Q, which means the patient could do it himself or herself, as opposed to what we have now with Cabotegravir, where it is an injection that has to be done within the context of a healthcare facility and a provider that has people who are trained to do special IM injections. So looking at the purpose study, Lenacapavir, there was zero incidents in the people who were on Lenacapavir every six months sub-Q. That's striking in terms of outcome. There were 39 new cases in the patients who were on the TAF arm, which is the Emtricitabine Tenofovir Alafenamide. So we've got new things coming, but they're not here yet, so.