Kenneth Mayer, MD: Safety and Tolerability of Once-Daily BIC/FTC/TAF for Postexposure Prophylaxis

Post-exposure prophylaxis is used to try to prevent infection after someone is exposed to HIV.

A poster on an antiviral post-exposure prophylaxis regimen of a single tablet regimen of bictegravir, emtricitabine, tenofovir alafenamide was presented at the Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2020).

Kenneth Mayer, MD, co‑chair and medical research director, The Fenway Institute, spoke with Contagion® about the poster.

Contagion®: What was the context for the undertaking of this study?

Mayer: Antiretroviral post-exposure prophylaxis has been shown to decrease HIV incidence in animal models and in an early study of health care workers who were occupationally exposed to HIV.

Guidelines for people who have been sexually exposed to HIV have been present for more than 2 decades, but earlier regimens involved multiple pills and had sufficient side effects that regimens were frequently not completed.

Contagion®: What were the key findings?

Mayer: The single tablet daily regimen of bictegravir, TAF and FTC was very well tolerated and had higher completion rates than historical controls.

Contagion®: What are the larger clinical takeaways?

Mayer: This may become a preferred regimen. The study is still ongoing.

Contagion®: Are there plans for future research on this topic?

Mayer: Yes, we hope to enroll around 100 participants. The poster was a preliminary report.

The poster, “Safety and Tolerability of Once-Daily BIC/FTC/TAF for Postexposure Prophylaxis” was virtually presented Monday, March 9, 2020, at CROI 2020.