A recent Interesting Engineering article contained good news in the fight against the HIV epidemic. Last Monday, the FDA announced its approval of the first injectable medication for pre-exposure prevention (aka PrEP) against HIV. The drug is called Apretude, and it was developed by ViiV Healthcare, which is majority-owned by GlaxoSmithKline. It is comparable to other HIV prevention pills such as Truvada and Descovy, which reduce HIV transmission risk by 99% when taken daily.
The new injectable drug is administered as two shots, one month apart, and then every two months. Insurers currently aren’t required to cover the whole cost of Apretude, which has a list price of $3,700 per dose and is expected to start shipping to wholesalers in early 2022.
