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by asveikau 725 days ago
They don't ask people to live their lives any differently than they would, nor do they expose anyone to HIV on purpose; they just track them assuming that x% of people get HIV in any given year. So they compare what X is for people who got the shot, vs those who did not.

As I skim TFA, they say nobody who got the shot ended up getting HIV, which would be statistical anomaly for the population they tested.
1 comments
smeej 725 days ago
It's not "no shot," though. It's other existing, widely available forms of pre-exposure prophylaxis.

They're not comparing the new treatment to nothing. They're comparing it to existing treatments.

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asveikau 725 days ago
Oh, ok, I skimmed past this:

> The shot was also superior to once-daily Truvada, another Gilead drug that is used for HIV prevention.

That's good news. As I understand it the existing treatments were already very good. And these injections are only once per year.

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duskwuff 725 days ago
Twice a year, but yes. That's a huge benefit -- not only is it easier for patients to stay on the treatment, but it's likely to be a lot cheaper as well.
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smeej 725 days ago
I wonder how much variation there might be in terms of margin of error. Like, how close do they have to get to keeping people on a rigid 6-month schedule? Would 7 be fine? For what percentage of people? I'm assuming they have reason to believe once a year isn't enough, so that's an upper bound, but what's the lower one?
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duskwuff 725 days ago
> I wonder how much variation there might be in terms of margin of error.

Probably quite a bit. The trial used the same dose of lenacapavir as what's used for maintenance in HIV patients; it's quite possible that less is needed to prevent infection in a healthy patient. Unfortunately, there's really no safe/ethical way for them to test lower doses.

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adgjlsfhk1 725 days ago
the short answer is no one knows (yet). if/once it gets approval, there likely would be a followup study on how much you can stretch the timing (possibly with dosage variation)
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oopsallmagic 725 days ago
It'll only be cheap once the patent expires. Until then, take those pills daily, y'all!
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