a puncture six times a year

by time news

Patients with controlled HIV in Spain will be able to access the first long-acting injectable treatmentcabotegravir and rilpivirine, developed through a collaboration of two pharmaceutical companies, ViiV Healthcare and Janssen.

This was reported this Wednesday at a press conference by the general director of ViiV Healthcare Spain, Ricardo Moreno Úbeda; the specialist in Internal Medicine of the HIV Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital, María Eugenia Negredo; and the specialist in Internal Medicine of the HIV Unit of the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Federico Pulido.

“We are going to offer Spanish patients the opportunity to change their form of treatment and improve aspects of their quality of life,” Moreno Úbeda assured, to highlight that this has already been approved in other countries.

Currently, the treatment of choice is a pill taken orally dailyAlthough Dr. Negredo has commented that it can sometimes cause toxic problems, forgetfulness or even stigma. In fact, she has alluded to various studies that indicate that 60 percent fear that they could forget about their medication, and that 40 percent believe that it favors stigma.

Given this scenario, the new treatment has been presented that, through the combination of two drugs, is administered intramuscularly, by health professionals, every two months, which is six times a year. More than 600 Spanish patients from 44 hospital centers have participated in its development for eight years.

“It is recommended in patients who are well controlled and who, for some reason, provide them with advantages over daily oral treatment. There is already a long-term management of safety and efficacy and the main side effects are pain from the puncture”, explained Dr. Pulido.

In fact, he continues, ever since its existence became known, either through clinical trials or because it is already being marketed in other countries, Spanish patients have demanded the treatment in consultations. “We have a waiting list,” Pulido asserted, to highlight that patients who have been with the treatment for eight years, for having participated in clinical trials, have not wanted to return to oral therapy.

This long-acting drug bases its mechanism of action on a system of nanoparticles or nanocrystals that, after administration through intramuscular injection, allow the medication to be released gradually in the body, maintaining drug concentration for 2 months, at which time they must be administered again.

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