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• Posted August 3, 2026

Once-Weekly Pill Could Revolutionize HIV Treatment

A new once-weekly pill could revolutionize regular care for patients with HIV, a new study says.

This experimental pill is as effective as one of today’s leading HIV therapies, researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“The first ever weekly oral therapy for the treatment of HIV could offer welcome relief from the burden of lifelong daily pill-taking for people living with HIV,” senior researcher Chloe Orkin, dean for healthcare transformation at Queen Mary University of London, said in a news release.

People with HIV need to take daily medication to keep the retrovirus suppressed, researchers said.

It can be difficult to adhere to such a strict drug schedule, and even a small slip risks a resurgence of HIV, researchers said.

The new pill combines two long-acting antiretroviral medicines, islatravir and lenacapavir. These drugs work in tandem to enable effective once-weekly dosing, researchers said.

To test it, researchers recruited more than 600 adults across 106 clinical sites in 12 countries. Participants were randomly assigned to take either the new pill or stay on their existing HIV medication.

After 48 weeks, the once-weekly pill proved just as effective as the standard once-a-day treatment. More than 93% of patients in both groups remained suppressed, and no weekly pill patients experienced a rising viral load during the study.

This once-weekly pill could provide greater flexibility for patients while avoiding the need for injectable drugs, researchers said. 

“This is especially important for people that are experiencing stigma and people with other HIV-associated health conditions who are taking multiple other tablets,” Orkin said.

The clinical trial remains ongoing. Researchers will continue to follow participants for 96 weeks total to assess longer-term safety and effectiveness.

The trial is funded by the new pill’s developers, Gilead Sciences and Merck Sharp & Dohme.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on treating HIV.

SOURCE: Queen Mary University of London, news release, July 29, 2026; The New England Journal of Medicine, July 29, 2026