30 Dec A new HIV treatment shot is given only twice a year. It could be a ‘game changer’

By Nada Hassanein, USA Today

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Sunlenca, an injectable therapy to suppress HIV for patients who suffered drug resistance to other regimens.

Experts say the new injectable, which works with less frequent dosing, can be a game changer for those whose infections don’t respond to other treatments.

Developed by Gilead Sciences, the drug is the first of a new class called capsid inhibitors, which work by blocking the protein shell, or capsid, of the virus, disrupting multiple stages of the viral life cycle. In a clinical trial, 83% of patients taking Sunlenca with a combination of other drugs achieved an undetectable viral load after about a year. Read more …