New French Study Indicates Taking PrEP Just Before Sex Could Reduce HIV Infection By 80%

For months now, medical research studies have indicated that taking Truvada, an anti-HIV medication, on a regular basis could effectively deter infection of HIV by over 90%.

Those studies showed that taking the drup at least four days a week on a regular basis could provide effective protection.

Now a new study in France indicates that taking two pills of Truvada just two hours before sex and two single doses within the following 24 hours could reduce the rate of being infected by 80%.

Researchers closed the study early due to the high effectiveness of the drug.

Via AIDS Map:

In an extraordinary development, a second European scientific trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has had its randomised phase closed early due to high effectiveness, just two weeks after the UK PROUD trial did exactly the same thing. The investigators of the IPERGAY trial, which has six sites in France and one in Canada, announced today a “Significant breakthrough in the fight against HIV and AIDS” because IPERGAY had successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of its PrEP regimen.

IPERGAY’s early closure is significant not only because it adds confirmation that PrEP can be highly effective, but because it was testing an innovative, intermittent (“on-demand”) PrEP regimen. In this study, participants did not take PrEP daily, but only when they anticipated having sex. The regimen involved taking two pills of Truvada (tenofovir + emtricitabine) twelve hours before anticipated sex and then, if sex happened, two separate one-pill doses the following day. This extends the versatility of PrEP and provides an alternative regimen to daily dosing.

As this is still in research, folks on Truvada daily doses should NOT change their regimen without discussing with their doctors.