HIV drug named breakthrough of the year

The American scientific magazine Science has just honored lenacapavir - a new generation injectable drug used to treat HIV-infected patients - as the breakthrough of the year.

The drug lenacapavir, sold under the brand name Sunlenca, is developed by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences.

This is a new generation of antiviral drugs that aim to prevent the formation of capsid - the protein shell that surrounds the genetic material of the HIV virus and has the main task of protecting the virus's genome.

Since 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved lenacapavir for the treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant HIV.

A large-scale study conducted by Gilead Sciences on young women and adolescent girls in Africa last June showed that the drug is up to 100% effective in preventing the disease of the century.

Many HIV/AIDS researchers hope that the drug developed by US biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences will have a dramatic effect in reducing global infection rates when used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).