Rilpivirine

The FDA approved the first long-acting injectable regimen for HIV treatment, Cabenuva, which includes shots of cabotegravir and rilpivirine given just once a month.

Patients with HIV on long-acting cabotegravir plus rilpivirine reported improved treatment satisfaction compared with daily ART at 96 weeks, according to results from the phase 3 FLAIR study.

A majority of virologically suppressed patients with HIV considered long-acting injectable ART to be acceptable, according to results from the CUSTOMIZE study presented during IDWeek.

Healio spoke with Rajesh T. Gandhi, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, about the benefits and drawbacks of injectable HIV regimens.

An injectable two-drug regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine administered every 2 months is noninferior to the same injection received monthly, according to results from the phase 3 ATLAS-2M trial.

In recent years, “a great deal of interest” has been generated around simplifying ART regimens, according to Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, principal investigator of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.