Future Directions in HIV Treatment
Key Themes:
- Treatment Evolution: Continuous improvement in HIV medications regarding efficacy, tolerability, and convenience
- Long-Acting Formulations: Development of oral, subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intravenous options
- Combination Products: Future devices potentially combining HIV treatment/prevention with contraception or sexually transmitted infection prevention
- HIV Prevention: New preventive therapies potentially effective for 1 to 2 years
Notable Insights from Dr Sharon Walmsley:
- Long-acting therapies help “demedicalize” HIV by reducing medication frequency.
- New challenges in adherence emerge with transition from daily to weekly or monthly dosing schedules.
- HIV treatment advances have informed approaches to other infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and Mpox.
- Despite prevention advances, questions remain about whether to continue vaccine development efforts given limited success to date.
