Innovation has transformed the prospects of people living with HIV from a death sentence to a chronic, manageable condition – and provided greater protection for those who could be exposed to it. Here, Dr. Kimberly Smith, Head of Research and Development at ViiV Healthcare – GSK’s specialist HIV company – explains just how far her team’s ambitions go.
In the mid-1990s, there was a patient I knew who was diagnosed with AIDS after being admitted for pneumonia. Not only did she have difficulty tolerating her medicines, but she also lived in fear of her diagnosis, especially after she adopted a son. Her wish – in addition to living a healthy life – was to be able to see him graduate from university.
I’d seen Beth* get incredibly sick due to adherence challenges, and come close to death, because of AIDS. But her strength and persistence carried her through. Today, Beth is thriving, healthy – and, most importantly for her, she made it to her son’s graduation. A turning point in her success, she shared, was in large part because of a long-acting therapy she had access to. As a doctor and caregiver, it’s a dream to have an impact like this. It's stories like hers that inspire me and my team of brilliant scientists to continue to look for ways to push the boundaries of science, all with the aim of changing lives.
Beth is one of 40 million people living with HIV worldwide – a virus that damages the immune system and weakens a person’s ability to fight off infections and disease. Just 40 years ago, an HIV diagnosis would likely lead to death. When the first treatments were approved in 1987, they made an incredible impact on the health of people living with HIV and AIDS. However, while they slowed disease progression, they couldn’t fully suppress the virus and caused drug resistance to develop quickly.
People had to take many pills and often had to set alarm clocks to remember to take them. Thankfully, since then, medicines have improved significantly, reducing the number of pills required to keep the virus supressed to as low as one. But other challenges – like continuing stigma, fear of status-disclosure and discrimination –remain.
Time and time again, we heard from the HIV community that options that offer longer dosing intervals and remove the requirement for a daily therapy could have a positive impact on the quality of life of people living with HIV – and those who could benefit from PrEP.
Today, what was considered the future of HIV care is a reality for many. The advent of long-acting options has truly been a game-changer for many in the community.
This is due, in large part, to ViiV Healthcare’s leadership in HIV innovation and the legacy of our founding companies, including GSK, which pioneered the first ever anti-retroviral medicine in the 1980s. Since then, we transferred our focus to developing medicines that prevents viral DNA from binding into the host cell, effectively blocking an important stage in the HIV replication cycle.
We have a history of shifting the HIV treatment paradigm, and we won’t stop. We are committed to providing options for people living with and at risk of HIV, so they may go about their daily lives with less frequent dosing and the confidence that they can adhere to their regimens.
Our scientists at ViiV are laser-focused on innovating our pipeline of long-acting therapies, extending dosing durations, providing even longer viral suppression, and offering greater freedom to people living with HIV and those who could benefit from PrEP. We are also exploring self-administration pathways that will empower patients to manage their treatments at home.
While we tackle HIV at every stage of its lifecycle, we’re also committed to achieving a cure. By using a multifaceted approach called “induce and reduce”, our goal is to get people living with HIV into remission by reactivating, exposing, and targeting the latent HIV reservoir hidden in a person’s cells.
The road to a cure will require innovation, creativity and, most of all, persistence. While a solution is still years away, we’ll continue our efforts to increase the widespread adoption of long-acting therapies to reduce new diagnoses and help more individuals achieve viral suppression.
Our commitment to ending the HIV epidemic is absolute and is rooted in the innovations ViiV has now and will develop for the future. People like Beth are counting on us, and we will not let them down.
*Beth’s name has been changed to protect her right to privacy
Head of Research and Development, ViiV Healthcare
