What is Long Acting Injectable HIV Treatment?

The Arrival of Long-Acting HIV Treatment

Source - Cabenuva

In 2021, ViiV (a GSK company) released Cabenuva, the first long-acting injectable medication for the treatment of HIV. Patients on Cabenuva receive the injection at their provider’s office every 2 months and no longer have to take daily pills. 

What is Cabenuva? 

Cabenuva is made up of 2 different medications - cabotegravir (an integrase inhibitor) and rilpivirine (a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors). Oral rilpivirine (brand name Edurant) has been used to treat HIV since 2011. 

Patients will receive 2 injections at each treatment visit, one on each buttock. The first 2 injections are 1 month apart and after that, the injections are every 2 months. The injections are 3 mLs each and are typically given with a 23G 1 and ½ inch needle. 

Who is Cabenuva for? 
Cabenuva is for people living with HIV who are already undetectable, are stable on their current oral regimen, have no history of treatment failure to any other HIV drug, and have no suspected resistance to cabotegravir or rilpivirine. If a patient has had to switch HIV treatments in the past because it did not keep them undetectable, then Cabenuva is not an appropriate drug for them. Cabenuva is not for pregnant or breastfeeding patients.

Cabenuva is NOT for PrEP (the prevention of HIV). It’s for the TREATMENT of HIV - for folks already living with HIV. There is also a long-acting injectable PrEP medication.

Does Cabenuva work? 
Yes, two phase-3 clinical trials (ATLAS and FLAIR) compared cabenuva to patients’ current daily oral regimen (2 NRTIs + 3rd agent) and found it to be non-inferior (aka just as effective).