A long-acting injection that prevents HIV is set to be approved for use in England and Wales, offering a major alternative to the daily pills currently used for protection against the virus.
The treatment, called cabotegravir (CAB-LA), is a form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and is administered once every two months. It is designed for people at risk of HIV who cannot take oral PrEP for medical or practical reasons.
In draft guidance released on Friday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended the injection for adults and young people at risk. It is already available on the NHS in Scotland.
Health secretary Wes Streeting called the approval “gamechanging.” He said: “For vulnerable people unable to take other methods of HIV prevention, this represents hope. England will be the first country to end HIV transmissions by 2030, and this breakthrough is another powerful tool to reach that goal.”
The rollout is expected to begin about three months after NICE issues its final guidance later this year.
More than 111,000 people accessed PrEP in England in 2024 — a 7% increase on the previous year, according to the UK Health Security Agency. NICE estimates that up to 1,000 people a year could benefit from the new injectable treatment.
Helen Knight, NICE’s director of medicines evaluation, said HIV “remains a serious public health challenge, but we now have powerful tools to prevent new infections.”
