Dr. Jean Michel – Molina: “For biomedical prevention of HIV we have a number of drugs which are likely to be available in the future: long acting drugs for prevention”

Jean-Michel Molina is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Paris Diderot – Paris 7, France, and Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris. Professor Molina’s primary clinical research interest lies in the area of the treatment of HIV infection, and he has been involved in a number of studies assessing new drugs or new strategies for the treatment of HIV infection. A cohort of more than 3,500 patients with HIV infection is followed in his department and is involved in this clinical research.

He is the Chair of the Clinical Trial Group at the French National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), where multicentre clinical trials are reviewed and implemented in France. Working with the ANRS, Professor Molina has been the principal investigator of a number of clinical trials in HIV-infected patients. More recently, Professor Molina has broadened his field of interest to the prevention of HIV-infection in high risk individuals using Pre-exposure prophylaxis with TDF/FTC and has been the PI of the ANRS Ipergay trial using on demand PrEP.

 

His presentation addresses current and future options for biomedical prevention of HIV and STIs. Could you summarize the alternatives that are going to arrive in the coming years?

For biomedical prevention of HIV we have a number of drugs which are likely to be available in the future: long acting drugs for prevention: cabotegravir every 2 months, vaginal ring with dapivirine every month or 3 months, lenacapavir every 6 months, neutralizing antibodies every 6 months, long acting pill every month…

For STI we have doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, and we  are looking forward to developing vaccine for bacterila STIS, gonorrhea in particular.

 

What role do you think Prep will play in HIV prevention: central or complementary?

Central role in addition or in replacement of condoms. What is critical is that people at risk use either PreP or condoms or both.

 

Are educational or awareness-raising strategies working to prevent new infections?

We need to do a much better job to increase awareness about this new prevention tools.