FDA approves new, twice-yearly injection for HIV prevention

The FDA announced today that they've approved a twice-yearly injection for preventing HIV infection in adults and kids. News On 6's Sam Carrico spoke to an HIV specialist about what this means for patients.

No longer a death sentence

HIV used to be considered a death sentence, but now preventing it could be as simple as getting a flu shot. Dr. Bryan Bozell says this is a big deal.

"There are many people across the United States who need HIV prevention who are not currently getting it," he said.

He's a pharmacist with OSU's Internal Medicine Specialty Clinic and says something like this wasn't possible even ten years ago. 

"If somebody has HIV today, in a lot of cases, it's easier to manage than diabetes," he said.

The new drug is called Lenacapavir. The FDA announced Wednesday it approved the drug to prevent HIV. It proved nearly 100% effective at preventing HIV in large trials last year, according to Reuters.

HIV in Oklahoma

The State Department of Health says Oklahoma ranked 20th in the rate of newly diagnosed HIV in the U.S. among those 13 years old and up, with 11.4 per 100,000 Oklahomans.

Dr. Bozell says HIV prevention treatments have existed for a while, but not like this.

A different kind of treatment

"A lot of the HIV regimens that existed were really easy for the HIV to mutate and get resistant to. And it's the sad fact that sometimes people would get resistant to one medication regimen and have to be switched to another, and they might get resistant to that medication regimen and be switched to another, and eventually people would burn through all of their options and run out of them," he said.

It will be sold under the name Yeztugo, but Dr. Bozell says it could be a while before the treatment is widely available. But Bozell says it'll do a lot of good once it's available everywhere.

"The biggest problem with HIV prevention when you're talking about the other options is that they only work if you take it. And humans are classically not the best at taking pills every day and remembering to take pills every day. So having an option where somebody can come into the clinic and get an injection every six months is going to really, really explode into the market," he said.

Bozell says anyone with HIV should contact their doctor to see if the medication is a good fit for their condition.