SEATTLE (AP) – monthly injections of HIV drugs worked as well as daily pills to control the virus that causes AIDS in two large international studies, scholars said on Thursday. If they are approved by regulators in the United States and Europe, the injections would be a new option for people with HIV and could help some keep treatment. Instead of having to remember to take pills, patients should receive their monthly injections of a physician or a nurse.” Some people will be happy”with convenience, said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a group of AIDS activism. Condoms are still more widely available and inexpensive way to prevent transmission of HIV. The daily pills can keep low virus levels so that it is not transmissible to sexual partners, but not all patients take them as prescribed.
Injections can improve adherence to treatment, perhaps helping those who have trouble every day remember to take pills to control the infection.
There are other potential benefits. Receive injections at a clinic leads to more privacy for patients worried about the stigma of presenting prescriptions at a pharmacy, said Dr. Susan Swindells, medical center of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who presented the results of the Thursday at a Conference of HIV in Seattle.El cost will be important to “ensure that everyone has access to this drug”, said Dr. Hyman Scott, of the Department of public health of San Francisco, who was not part of the study. It is not clear how much would cost the injections. HIV pills can cost a patient thousands of dollars a month, depending on the combination of drugs, insurance, rebates and discounts. And there are concerns about the possibility that a patient loses is a monthly injection, which could lead to a variant of the drug-resistant virus. It will be “a good choice for some people”, said Scott.Las injections are a combination of two drugs against HIV _ rilpivirine, produced by Janssen and an experimental drug known as cabotegravir, produced by ViiV Healthcare, which paid for the study. Producers have applied for approval in the United States and Europe.
A study had the participation of 616 people who were taking pills to control the infection. The other involved 566 people who had not begun treatment and therefore received the pills initially to control the infection.
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