{"id":838066,"date":"2026-07-31T11:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/838066\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:55:12","slug":"a-new-kind-of-hiv-pill-just-passed-its-first-test-in-humans-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/838066\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Kind of HIV Pill Just Passed Its First Test in Humans : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have just announced the results from the first clinical trial<\/a> in people with HIV-1 of a new antiretroviral drug, which suggests it could be a very useful new tool in treating the virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The drug is currently known as ‘VH-499’ (that’s short for VH4011499), and it works by inhibiting the virus’s capsid protein, without which HIV<\/a> cannot proliferate to harmful or transmissible levels.<\/p>\n

“Advancements in care and prevention have transformed HIV-1 into a manageable chronic condition and reduced transmission rates,” write clinical pharmacologist Rulan Griesel and team in a paper announcing the clinical trial results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“While many individuals achieve durable suppression with current [antiretroviral] regimens, some continue to face challenges related to drug-drug interactions, adherence, tolerability, stigma, and access.”<\/p>\n

\"AA transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus capsids (purple). (Callista Images\/Connect Images\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

VH-499, a drug that passed its lab-based preclinical trials<\/a> with flying colors, works by interfering with the virus’s ability to produce its proteinaceous shell, known as a capsid.<\/p>\n

Those preclinical trials described its ability to stop HIV-1 from replicating as ‘potent’.<\/p>\n

Now, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2a trial has suggested this is a drug worth seeing through.<\/p>\n

It’s important to note this research was funded by ViiV Healthcare, a British pharmaceutical company and a joint venture of Pfizer and GSK<\/a>, so there is some vested interest in profiting from the development of this drug.<\/p>\n

Some members of the research team are employees of ViiV Healthcare and GSK.<\/p>\n

However, the clinical trial findings have been independently verified as part of the scientific peer-review process, before being published in the Infectious Diseases Society of America<\/a>‘s journal Clinical Infectious Diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

VH-499 was first tested in adults without HIV-1 in results presented in 2024<\/a> by a team led by GSK.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

That phase 1 trial determined that the drug was well-tolerated by adults without HIV-1, but this next step is where we can really start seeing its potential.<\/p>\n

For the phase 2a trial, twenty-three adults with HIV-1 who had not started any kind of antiretroviral therapy participated. <\/p>\n

On day 1 of the trial, 20 of the participants were given VH-499 as an oral pill at a dose of either 25, 100, or 250 mg; three were given a placebo<\/a>. They repeated these doses on day 6.<\/p>\n

Then, at day 11, all participants started a standard antiretroviral therapy regimen.<\/p>\n

Before starting the treatment, all participants had more than 3,000 copies of the virus per milliliter (mL) of blood plasma: what is considered a high viral load.<\/p>\n

By day 11, everyone who took VH-499 during the study saw their viral loads drop.<\/p>\n

\"AVH-499 demonstrated highly potent antiviral activity. (Griesel et al., Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections<\/a>, 2025)<\/p>\n

You might notice those decreases were somewhat dose-dependent, meaning people who took a higher dose of VH-499 saw the greatest effects. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, people in the placebo group saw almost no change in their viral load.<\/p>\n

“We show that VH\u2011499 had highly potent antiviral activity, was well tolerated, and had a favorable safety profile in adults with HIV\u20111 who were naive to ART,” the study’s authors conclude<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new trial also confirms the drug does not significantly interfere with the enzyme CYP3A4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s a perk, because CYP3A4 is often caught in the crossfire of unwanted drug interactions when it comes to HIV treatments. <\/p>\n

Lenacapavir, marketed under the brand name Yeztugo, is another HIV treatment and prevention medication. <\/p>\n

It is most often administered as a shot every six months,<\/a> lasting the whole way through, so it certainly still has the edge on VH-499 and other capsid inhibitors in terms of coverage. <\/p>\n

It was even named 2024 “Breakthrough of the Year”<\/a> by Science magazine. <\/p>\n

You might be wondering how VH-499 stands any chance against this golden boy.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, lenacapavir has a downside: it’s known to affect that enzyme, CYP3A4, which means it may be less ideal for people dealing with multiple health issues for which they are taking many different medications.<\/p>\n

Depending on what those other medications are<\/a>, lenacapavir may be contraindicated (i.e., the combination of drugs is known to cause harm in some way) or affect dosage.<\/p>\n

The new study’s authors suggest<\/a> VH-499 may therefore be “advantageous for people with comorbidities or complex polypharmacy”.<\/p>\n

Preclinical trials<\/a> that pitted VH-499 against a collection of laboratory strains and chimeric viruses<\/a> showed the drug “potently inhibited both early and late stages of HIV-1 replication and had resistance profiles similar to lenacapavir”.<\/p>\n

Related: 7th HIV Remission Raises Hope of Long-Lasting Treatment For More People<\/a><\/p>\n

But we won’t know what VH-499 really has to offer until the phase 3 trials, when the drug is given to a much larger group of people, and researchers formally compare it against existing treatments.<\/p>\n

It’s only after phase 3 trials that drugs will be put to market.<\/p>\n

“Our findings support the potential of VH-499 to diversify long-acting therapies, offering promise for advancing progress toward the UNAIDS 2030 goal of ending HIV-1 transmission as a public health threat,” the authors conclude<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The research is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was fact-checked by Rachel Garner<\/a> and edited by Peter Dockrill<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have just announced the results from the first clinical trial in people with HIV-1 of a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,315],"class_list":["post-838066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-msft-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}