The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Truvada as the first HIV-prevention pill, according to CBS News.
Gilead Sciences’ Truvada has been taken by HIV-positive people over 12 in conjunction with other antiretroviral drugs since the FDA first approved it eight years ago. The newest approval applies in combination with safer-sex practices for preventative use in healthy individuals who are at a high risk for HIV or who may have sex with HIV-positive people.
However, the FDA strongly recommended against using Truvada to prevent disease transmission in individuals who may already have HIV.
In a statement, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg said that Truvada’s “approval marks an important milestone in our fight against HIV.”
AIDS Foundation of Chicago President/CEO David Ernesto Munar, in a separate statement, said, “AFC has long supported the development of new prevention technologies, including PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] and vaginal and rectal microbicides. The FDA’s decision on Truvada is exciting. Our challenge now is to implement PrEP as strategically as possible, and to ensure the people who need it most, those who are most at risk for HIV, have access.”