New PrEP drug shows 100 percent efficiency in South Africa, Uganda trials
Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, principal investigator for the South African part of the lencapavir study A clinical trial underway in South Africa and Uganda has shown that a twice-yearly injection of a new PrEP drug gives young women total protection from HIV infection, according to a July 10 report at ScienceAlert.com, republished from The Conversion.
The trial was designed to test whether a six-month injection of lenacapavir provides better protection than two other PrEP drugs, both of which are daily pills.
The trial included 5,000 participants at three sites in Uganda and 25 sites in South Africa. In eastern and southern areas of Africa, most new HIV infections are among young women, and these young women “find a daily PrEP regimen challenging to maintain for a number of social and structural reasons,” Linda-Gail Bekker, principal investigator for the South African part of the study told ScienceAlert.com’s Nadine Dreyer.
This was a randomized controlled trial sponsored by Gilead Sciences and tested, first, whether lencapavir was safe and would provide better protection against HIV than Truvada F/TDF in women ages 16-25.
