The NHS is set to offer a new long‐acting injectable therapy to prevent HIV in England and Wales, following a positive recommendation by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence).
The drug, cabotegravir (brand name Apretude), will be made available for people at risk of HIV who are unable or unwilling to take daily oral PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). Administered every two months, it offers a more flexible prevention option.
NICE’s guidance enables the drug to be routinely funded via the NHS, with plans for rollout in Wales within two months and in England within three months pending any appeals. In England, this new prevention tool is expected to benefit around 1,000 people each year who have contraindications or barriers to oral PrEP.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the move, calling it “game-changing” in efforts to reduce new HIV transmissions. The NHS itself noted that the new injection marks a major step towards its goal of eliminating HIV transmission in the coming years.
Advocacy and health organisations have emphasised the importance of offering diverse prevention options to meet different patient needs. Clinical trial data supporting cabotegravir demonstrated significantly lower HIV acquisition rates compared with daily oral PrEP.
Overall, the approval represents a watershed moment in the UK’s HIV prevention strategy and could further reduce new infections if effectively deployed.
