Drug updates: December

Draft guidance, published on the 18 November, is the first time NICE has made recommendations about the use of an HIV treatment since these came under NICE's remit in 2019. It is estimated that approximately 13 000 people in England will now be eligible for treatment with cabotegravir and rilpivirine.

HIV1 is currently treated with daily antiretroviral tablets. The goal is to keep the viral load (the number of virus particles in the blood) as low as possible so that it cannot be detected or transmitted between people.

Cabotegravir (also known as Vocabria and manufactured by Viiv Healthcare) in combination with rilpivirine (also known as Rekambys and manufactured by Janssen) is recommended as an option for adults with HIV-1 infection when antiretroviral medicines have kept the virus at a low level, there is no evidence of viral resistance and there has been no previous failure of other anti-HIV-1 medicines known as non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NN (INIs).