Anvisa approves first injection for HIV prevention – 06/10/2023 – Health
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Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) approved the first injectable drug against HIV. Cabotegravir is a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), that is, it serves to reduce the risk of contracting the AIDS virus.
The medicine is manufactured by the British pharmaceutical company GSK, but there is still no disclosure about its commercialization in Brazil. The approval was published in the Official Gazette of the Union on June 5th.
Currently, pre-exposure prophylaxis for the AIDS virus is already used in the SUS. However, you need to take one tablet a day of TE (tenofovir and encitrabine).
The drug was approved by the FDA, the regulatory agency of the United States, in 2021. It is given first as two initial injections one month apart, and then every two months thereafter.
In an article on Sheet, Doctor Drauzio Varella said that the drug could revolutionize AIDS prevention and reduce the risk by 90%.
Research has shown that from January 2017 to November 2020 there were 40 HIV infections: four of them in the group that received cabotegravir; 36 in the group treated with TE. Therefore, cabotegravir reduced the risk by 88% compared to those taking a daily TE tablet.
“It is a safe, well-tolerated drug, capable of maintaining its inhibitory action for eight weeks, counting from a 600 mg intramuscular injection,” he said.
However, he pointed out that each dose of cabotegravir costs US$ 3,700 in the US, a price that makes its use unfeasible in almost all countries.
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