[HN Gopher] US FDA approves Gilead's twice-yearly injection for ...
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       US FDA approves Gilead's twice-yearly injection for HIV prevention
        
       Author : JumpCrisscross
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2025-06-18 19:39 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | hughw wrote:
       | Who will take this drug? Every sexually active person? Would
       | insurers pay for prophylaxis?
        
         | mystified5016 wrote:
         | Insurance (at least some) do pay for oral HIV prophylaxis (in
         | the US)
        
         | hyperhello wrote:
         | Couples with one infected partner, I suppose.
        
         | foxyv wrote:
         | I can think of a few cases where this would be a good idea. IV
         | drug users, those engaging in risky sex, sex workers, hospital
         | workers after accidental exposure, HIV positive mothers, those
         | with drug resistant HIV, people with HIV positive partners, and
         | anyone who cares to.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | Anyone at risk of exposure.
         | 
         | https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/pre-ex...
        
           | hughw wrote:
           | thanks for that link.
           | 
           |  _if you are HIV negative, have had anal or vaginal sex in
           | the past 6 months, and:_                 Have a sexual
           | partner with HIV (especially if the partner has an unknown or
           | detectable viral load), or       Have not consistently used a
           | condom, or       Have been diagnosed with a sexually
           | transmitted infection (STI) in the past 6 months.
           | 
           | This is a very, very high number of candidate patients!
           | Anyone who inconsistently uses a condom. "During 2011-2015,
           | 14.8 percent of women and 19 percent of men aged 15-44
           | reported that they used a condom 'every time' they had
           | intercourse in the past 12 months," the NCHS team wrote in
           | their report." [1]
           | 
           | [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/third-u-s-men-
           | use...
        
             | toomuchtodo wrote:
             | A wide net can be cast, but broadly speaking, you'll want
             | to start with your highest exposure and compliance (having
             | to take a pill everyday is not great) risk patients first
             | and work your way down as you scale up manufacturing and
             | last mile infrastructure. Daily pill users turn into twice
             | annual injection users, healthcare workers who could
             | receive the injection at the workplace, etc.
             | 
             | This should, in theory, cause the infection rate to rapidly
             | decline when you disrupt the most common and frequent
             | transmission vectors. The slow long burn is going to be
             | upkeep on all of this until HIV is eradicated (similar to
             | the last days of a disease due to sufficient vaccination
             | uptake, think smallpox).
        
         | HWR_14 wrote:
         | My guess is that it's cost effective to pay for prevention.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | The social case for heavily subsidising (if not making free)
           | preventative care and treatment for _any_ contagious disease
           | is strong.
        
       | nerdjon wrote:
       | This is awesome news, with a lot of the recent news I was worried
       | this was not going to happen or we would get some stupid fear
       | mongering (or some puritanical reason used).
       | 
       | Now the real question is insurance. Is this cheaper than the
       | pills?
       | 
       | To my knowledge even the previous injections were hard to get
       | insurance to pay for given how cheap you can get truvada since
       | its generic.
        
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       (page generated 2025-06-18 23:01 UTC)