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Injectable PrEP Could Revolutionize Safer Sex For Gay Men

If successful, the medication would only have to be administered every three or four months.

AIDSMap reports:

Drug levels stayed high enough in the body for it to be injected quarterly, and now studies of drug concentration in humans have confirmed that an 800mg intramuscular injection will be given once every twelve weeks in efficacy trials.

...Drug-level monitoring studies in human volunteers have found that a dose of 500mg produces levels of the drug that stay within the therapeutic level for as long as 16 weeks and that the drug's ‘half-life’ – its rate of elimination in the body – is 25 times longer with the injectable formulation than with the oral cabotegravir pill that is being developed for HIV treatment.

They calculated that an 800mg dose every twelve weeks should result in trough levels of drug that are still over eight times the 90% inhibitory concentration (IC90) of the drug – the level that should reduce viral replication by 90%.

An injectable form of another drug, rilpivirine, show promise in working primarily for anal, rather than vaginal sex.

Related: PrEP Still Effective If Only Taken Before Sex, Study Suggests

While the CDC and gay-health groups have promoted awareness of the drug Truvada to prevent HIV infection, critics have raised concerns about whether or not users would be diligent in taking the medication every day as directed.

Just the other week, a different study out of Montreal suggests that taking PrEP just before a sexual encounter, rather than daily, has an 80% success rate in preventing HIV infection. Regularly daily use of Truvada has a 99% success rate in preventing infection.

h/t: AIDSMap via Joe My God

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