New approaches to HIV prevention; plus Abpro, Capsida and more

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) separately published studies featuring anti-HIV candidates that provided protection against repeated simian HIV challenges in non-human primates.

In Nature, Gilead researchers and colleagues reported that a single subcutaneous injection of GS-CA1 — a structural analog of lenacapavir, an HIV capsid protein inhibitor — reduced infection risk 97% for 24 weeks in rhesus macaques challenged under a weekly intrathecal dose-escalation protocol. Lenacapavir is under review by FDA and EMA to treat adults with multidrug-resistant HIV-1 infection. ...