Question
Could HIV drugs be an annual implant?
2 January 2018. Related: All topics, Research.
Hi
Is there any research on a long term medical implant going on ?
I read somewhere a bio degradable implant is being worked on which will last one year. This would effectively be a cure I would think as It would only require yearly or six monthly doctor visits. Surely this would be more cost effective than daily pills ?
Answer
Hi
You are right that one compound in development might be available as a slow release implant.
The compound is called EFdA and we reported early studies presented at a conference last year. It is also now called MK-8591.
https://i-base.info/htb/29774
Although an annual implant might be available for this drug, HIV treatment usually needs three drugs in a combination, or sometimes only two. Either way, EFdA will need to be used in combination with other long-activing molecules and currently there are no-other long acting drugs to use with it.
The research into the annual implant therefore is for use by HIV negative people as PrEP – i.e. to prevent infection.
If one drug can be produced with this profile, there is hope that another might be discovered, just that none are available yet.
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