What is the LATTE-2 Trial for HIV Treatment?

Peter Williams, PhD, Compound Development Team Leader, HIV Projects, Janssen Global Public Health, Belgium, discusses the LATTE-2 trial for HIV treatment.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“This is a trial in HIV-infected patients who were brought to < 50 copies/ml of virus in their plasma with an induction period with an oral treatment with cabotegravir and 2 nucleoside analogues for 20 weeks. Once they had reached that critical threshold of < 50 copies/ml in plasma, they were randomized to be given injectable of antiretrovirals either every 8 weeks or every 4 weeks. The two drugs that were given were rilpivirine long-acting injectable or cabotegravir (from ViiV healthcare). Rilpivirine is a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, which is a Janssen product that is on the market in the oral form, but the long-acting injectable form is under development with us.

Once the randomization had happened, there was a group who were allowed to continue with their oral therapy, but about 115 patients were randomized to an every 8-week regimen [of the injectable regimen], and another 115 patients to every 4 weeks, and then about 55 patients remained on the oral therapy. We studied their viral load and their tolerability of the injections over the next almost 2 years—96 weeks in total.”