Matchstick-Size Implant With New Drug May Protect Against HIV Infection: It Could ‘Be A Game-Changer’
It's early stages yet, but scientists were excited about the possibilities offered by the implant as it would address the problem of patients adhering to a daily medication schedule.
In what could eventually become a milestone for H.I.V. prevention, very preliminary tests of an implant containing a new drug suggest that it may protect against infection for a full year. The new implant, by the drug company Merck, was tested in just a dozen subjects for 12 weeks. But experts were quite excited at its potential to revolutionize the long battle against H.I.V. The research was described on Tuesday at an international AIDS conference in Mexico City. (McNeil, 7/23)
The approach uses a small implant the size of a matchstick, inserted in the upper arm, to slowly release a new medication that appears to block the virus for a year or more. If it is proven safe and successful in larger studies, the method could be a major improvement for people at high risk of contracting HIV who have trouble adhering to the once-a-day pill regimen and other methods used now. The new drug, islatravir, and the implant were developed by the drug company Merck and described at a news conference at an international gathering of HIV researchers in Mexico City. (Bernstein, 7/23)
At an all-day meeting for investors last month in a posh Manhattan event space, executives at Merck couldn鈥檛 have been more excited about a new HIV drug, MK-8591. They mentioned it 25 times, calling it 鈥渁 game changer鈥 and talking up its 鈥渞emarkable properties.鈥 Why? If effective, it could be used in a new drug combination that might have fewer side effects, the company says. More excitingly, it might be fashioned into an implant that could be given only once a year to prevent patients at high risk from contracting HIV, a boon to public health. (Herper, 7/23)
In other news 鈥
As Sanjay Johnson describes it, his sexual encounter with James Booth on Oct. 2, 2015, was a one-night stand. But it would bind the men inextricably two years later, when Booth walked into an Arkansas police station and accused Johnson of exposing him to HIV. Little Rock prosecutors pursued a criminal charge against Johnson even though a doctor said he couldn't have transmitted HIV to Booth because he was on medication that suppressed his virus. (7/23)
