Grant awarded for HIV/AIDS drug

Researchers at the University of North Carolina have been awarded a 3-year, $1.8 million grant by the NIH for the development of a new implantable drug delivery system for HIV/AIDS.

The injectable formulation contains an anti-HIV drug, a polymer and a solvent, that solidify once injected into the skin. As the polymer degrades, the drug is slowly released into the patient’s system.

“This long-acting injectable formulation could provide a discrete and efficient method to protect against HIV infection and improve adherence, which is one of the major challenges of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP,” said Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. “The formulation is adaptable to a number of drugs alone or in combination and can be fine-tuned to meet a targeted release regimen.”

“The goal of our study is to develop an injectable polymer-based delivery system for long-acting PrEP that offers durable, sustained protection from HIV transmission, high efficacy of HIV inhibition, increased adherence and the ability to be removed in the case of an unanticipated adverse event or when considering discontinued of this form of PrEP,” added Martina Kovarova, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. “If discontinuation of treatment is desired, the implant would be readily removable.”