FDA approves HIV prevention drug taken as twice-yearly injection

HIV vaccine probe faces backing cuts

What to cognize astir the Trump administration's determination to chopped HIV vaccine probe funding 02:33

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the cause lenacapavir arsenic a twice-yearly injection to forestall HIV.

The drug, called Yeztugo from institution Gilead Sciences, was approved Wednesday based connected information from objective trials that showed 99.9% of participants who received it remained HIV negative.

Daniel O'Day, Gilead's president and main enforcement officer, called the support a "milestone infinitesimal successful the decades-long combat against HIV."

"Yeztugo volition assistance america forestall HIV connected a standard ne'er seen before. We present person a mode to extremity the HIV epidemic erstwhile and for all," O'Day said successful a quality release.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, determination were 31,800 estimated caller HIV infections successful the United States successful 2022, the astir caller twelvemonth with disposable data.

While the drug's support meets an existing need, the Trump administration's backing decisions person rolled backmost advancement for a vaccine.

Last month, the medication moved to extremity backing for a wide swath of HIV vaccine research, saying existent approaches are capable to antagonistic the virus.

Dr. Barton Ford Haynes, the manager of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, recently told CBS News lenacapavir is simply a "wonderful improvement for the field," but said determination was inactive a request for a vaccine.

"For HIV vaccine plan and development, we've begun to spot airy astatine the extremity of the passageway aft galore years of research," Dennis Burton, an immunology prof astatine Scripps Research, antecedently told CBS News. "This is simply a unspeakable clip to chopped it off. We're opening to get close. We're getting bully results retired of objective trials."

Burton warned that their HIV vaccine probe could not simply beryllium turned backmost on, adjacent if a aboriginal medication decided to alteration people connected HIV funding. He said ongoing experiments would beryllium shuttered, and researchers assembled to survey the contented would beryllium forced to refocus their careers connected different topics.

"This is simply a determination with consequences that volition linger. This is simply a setback of astir apt a decennary for HIV vaccine research," Burton said.

Dr. Céline Gounder and Alexander Tin contributed to this report.

• Food and Drug Administration
• FDA
• HIV / AIDS