Long-acting HIV drugs advanced to overcome adherence challenge

BOSTON — The results from a particular drug trial presented here last month at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) may not have seemed particularly noteworthy. It simply showed that two pills performed as well as another combination of medicines. But the antiretroviral agents tested in the trial were not your ordinary drugs.

The regimen consisted of two drugs: an HIV integrase inhibitor called GSK744 and a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor called rilpivirine. Although there are already many similar agents on the market from both HIV-fighting drug classes, only these two compounds are proven to have one important property: both can be formulated as long-acting injectables.