New Antiretroviral Drugs in the Pandemic

Abstract

The pandemic of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has impacted the care of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV prevention in several ways. Locking down and limiting transportation to slow down COVID-19 transmission can cause difficulty accessing and non-compliance to daily-dosing antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The new formu-lations of ARVs, including long-acting ones administered as injections and implants are being approved and developed for HIV treatment and prevention. Intramuscular cabotegravir and rilpivirine co-formulation is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for HIV treatment in virologically suppressed adults on a stable regimen, while intramuscular cabotegravir is approved for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. Other long-acting drugs, such as lenacapavir and islatravir have currently been developed and studied for HIV treatment and/or prevention. This present article concisely reviews the current knowledge on these new ARVs and their implications, which may serve as novel regimens for use during the current and future pandemics.