The Data and Safety Monitoring Board stopped a clinical trial early after cabotegravir, a preventive injectable drug administered every eight weeks, demonstrated superior efficacy over the daily pill, Truvada, according to the World Health Organization.
The trial, run by the HIV Prevention Trials Network, enrolled more than 3,200 women who were not infected with HIV between the ages of 18 and 45 across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa, areas of high HIV incidence. A total of 38 women contracted HIV, 34 who were given the pill compared to four who received the injection.
"We know that adherence to a daily pill regimen continues to be challenging, and an effective injectable product such as long-acting CAB is a very important additional HIV prevention option for them," Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, MD, study chair, said in a news release.
Dr. Delany-Moretlwe directs research at Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute and is a research professor at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
An earlier study in cisgender men and transgender women found the injection to be more effective than the pill, but did not include cisgender women.
Further studies and reviews will be conducted before the injection becomes widely available.
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