ViiV Advances Long-Acting HIV Care with Patient-Led Strategy

As long-acting injectable therapies continue to reshape the landscape of HIV care, ViiV Healthcare’s chief medical officer Jean van Wyk, MBChB, MFPM, shared how new findings from IAS 2025, including data from the VOLITION and OPERA studies, are informing the company’s long-term vision for treatment and prevention.

“It's been nearly 40 years since the first antiretroviral therapy came to market,” van Wyk said, “and while daily oral regimens are now highly effective and tolerable, they don’t meet the needs of everyone—particularly in the face of persistent stigma and the psychosocial toll of daily pill-taking.”

According to van Wyk, stigma remains a powerful barrier to care. “If you ask the average person what they know about HIV, the knowledge is still limited and often negative,” he said. “People still associate it with a death sentence, which is simply not true anymore. Today, people with HIV are living long, healthy, and full lives.”

This disconnect, van Wyk emphasized, is one reason why ViiV has committed to long-acting therapies like cabotegravir plus rilpivirine (CAB + RPV LA)—a regimen administered every two months and now increasingly preferred by patients. “Removing that daily reminder of HIV can have a profound impact on quality of life,” he said.

ViiV's focus on long-acting regimens stems from both clinical performance and patient feedback. In the VOLITION study, 89% of newly diagnosed patients who achieved viral suppression on oral dolutegravir/lamivudine chose to switch to CAB + RPV LA. Convenience, stigma reduction, and reduced anxiety around disclosure were cited as key motivators.

Meanwhile, real-world data from the OPERA cohort reinforced the therapy’s effectiveness among treatment-experienced individuals, including those who were viremic at baseline. “We looked at over 300 people who were viremic—88% achieved suppression after switching to long-acting therapy,” van Wyk noted. “And in viremic women, that number was even higher—around 92%.”

As part of ViiV’s broader strategy, van Wyk said the company is investing heavily in next-generation long-acting formulations. “We’re currently exploring a four-monthly injectable regimen,” he shared. “Our goal is to eventually reach six-month or even yearly dosing. That would be transformative.”

He added that ViiV’s innovation pipeline centers on integrase inhibitors, such as cabotegravir, which form the backbone of its long-acting regimens. “We believe integrase inhibitors should remain the core of therapy—combined with new agents that extend dosing intervals even further.”

More than just convenience, long-acting regimens represent a shift toward patient-centered, personalized care, addressing fear of disclosure, adherence challenges, and overall well-being. “We’re not just measuring viral suppression anymore,” van Wyk said. “We’re also focused on quality of life, persistence, and engagement with care.”

Importantly, he stressed that ViiV’s direction is guided by the voices of the people it serves. “We bring their input into the company—we listen to what people living with HIV are telling us, and we act on that,” van Wyk said. “We’re working with the community, for the community.”

As long-acting options gain traction across studies like VOLITION, OPERA, CARLOS, COMBINE-2, and BEYOND, ViiV remains the only company currently offering a complete injectable treatment regimen—and shows no signs of slowing down.

“It's a testament to the power of choice,” van Wyk concluded. “Giving people the option of what’s best suited to their lives is what drives our innovation—and it’s how we’ll continue to lead.”

Reference

ViiV Healthcare data show 89% of treatment-naïve people with HIV choose to switch to long-acting injectable Vocabria + Rekambys from daily pills after achieving rapid viral suppression. Businesswire. June 14, 2025. Accessed June 17, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250714839509/en/ViiV-Healthcare-data-show-89-of-treatment-nave-people-with-HIV-choose-to-switch-to-long-acting-injectable-Vocabria-Rekambys-from-daily-pills-after-achieving-rapid-viral-suppression