Delivery of long-acting injectable antivirals: best approaches and recent advances

Treatment of chronic disease in a manner that promotes compliance and patient adherence has necessitated the consideration for drug delivery approaches that reduce the burden of regimens requiring daily treatment. Long-acting injectable (LAI) products have been developed in many disease areas and are now being exploited for the treatment of infectious disease, most notably HIV.

Research published over the past 3 years has shown that LAI nanosuspensions of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and integrase inhibitors provide extended exposure to the active drug over a period of days to weeks. Some of these candidates are currently in clinical study and are highly anticipated medications for the prevention of HIV.

LAIs represent a growing need in the treatment of chronic infections. To date, the approach has been most successfully applied in the treatment of HIV, but could certainly be expanded into other diseases like tuberculosis. Most importantly, LAIs can provide a means to help prevent the emergence of resistance which may be attributed to lack of compliance to regimens requiring daily, oral administration.