New Study Produces PrEP Implant that May be 100% Effective Against HIV

A new joint study between the Centers for Disease Control Prevention and the University of North Carolina may have developed an injectable implant that can fully protect against HIV. The study, published in Nature Communications earlier this month, showed the implant to be fully effective for up to six months of protection in macaques, who have similar immune systems to humans.

According to HIV Plus Magazine, the injections use a newly refined form of cabotegravir, which was approved by the FDA in 2021 as an injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to be used every two months under the brand name Apretude. Cabotegravir also comes in pill form to be taken every four weeks under the brand name Vocabria.

“This is the first time we showed 100% protection against multiple virus challenges in a macaque model of PrEP over an extended period of time,” says Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, MSc who worked on the study and is also an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina in a statement. The implant would require a twice-yearly injection that the patient could self administer to keep the protection from the implant current. 

The six macaques in the study were exposed to the virus rectally because that’s one of the most common ways that humans contract the virus. The macaques were exposed 38 times over the course of several months and, miraculously, none of them contracted the virus. The next step in their research is to test it in humans where researchers hope to find that the dosage will remain in the body for at least 5.6 months at a time. That research will require further funding for the study.

“UNC is home of world class experts in clinical trials for HIV prevention,” Benhabbour explains. “It would be terrific to take advantage of this in-house expertise in clinical trials to evaluate our technology.”