Virologist Virologist Volchkov says a new drug that protects against HIV will not be a victory over AIDS: A drug that provides 100% protection against HIV cannot defeat AIDS 12:25

Gilead Sciences introduced the drug Lenacapavir, which provides 100% protection against HIV. However, it will not be a victory against AIDS, as it is a monoclonal antibody, which means that after some time after its use the virus will become resistant to the drug. This was told by Pavel Volchkov, Deputy Director of Science at the Federal Research Center for Original and Future Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Virologist.

Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies produced by immune cells. They can be produced against almost any natural antigen to which the antibody will bind specifically.

“Viruses very quickly escape monoclonal antibodies. This means that as soon as the drug becomes widely used, literally in a year or two the virus will mutate and become resistant, that is, strains resistant to the treatment will be formed. And this drug will no longer be relevant,” Volchkov said.

It is also important to make sure that the person does not have an existing HIV infection at the time of injection of this antibody.

“This is actually a fairly trivial task, as currently used technologies can only ‘catch’ the virus when the viral load in the body is already high, meaning at least a year has passed since the infection. The company says the treatment will be focused mainly on poor countries, especially Africa. However, detection methods that would allow the virus to be detected at an early stage are not widely available in these regions,” he said.

The scientist also noted that the treatment would cost about $ 42 thousand, which is quite expensive for third world countries. In addition, the emergence of such a drug would encourage people to stop using birth control, which could lead to an increase in the number of infections.

Formerly a doctor removed The myth is that oral contraceptives increase blood sugar.