For the first time, the U.K.’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has signed off on offering pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment to people at a high risk of contracting HIV.
The recommendation means that PrEP could soon be available through the National Health Service. The decision came in the form of draft guidance, and a consultation on the recommendation is open until the end of January, NICE said.
A NHS representative didn't immediately say which PrEP drugs the agency will use.
The NICE decision comes as the U.K. takes steps to reduce sexually transmitted disease. The goal of the government’s HIV Action Plan is to eliminate transmission of HIV by 2030.
A study in the U.K. of PrEP—a pill which prevents the virus from entering healthy cells—showed that it reduced the risk of HIV infection by 86% for men who have sex with men.
Since October of 2020, clinics in England have provided PrEP to more than 26,000 people, most of them gay and bisexual men, helping limit the spread of HIV.
“The number of cases of HIV being recorded each year has fallen considerably and the number of people dying from this virus is also receding in the U.K.,” Paul Chrisp, the director of NICE’s center for guidelines, said in a statement.
The NICE guidelines identify people most at risk for contracting HIV and who should use PrEP. They are men who have sex with other men without a condom, heterosexual men and women who have condomless sex with HIV positive partners, and transexual women who are at an elevated risk of acquiring HIV through condomless sex.
RELATED: GlaxoSmithKline's long-acting HIV drug nabs FDA priority review as a preventative option
The decision comes four weeks after NICE blessed GlaxoSmithKline's long-acting HIV treatment Cabenuva. Availability of the drug will allow those with HIV to switch from daily oral treatment to injections every two months following an initiation phase.
GSK also is developing cabotegravir long-acting as a PrEP option for the prevention of HIV-1. In September, it scored FDA priority review designation, setting it up for a decision in January, which would allow it to challenge Gilead's market-leading drugs in the category.