ViiV Healthcare was founded with a very specific mission in HIV. Could you briefly explain the company’s origins and the goals that still guide its work today?
We are the only company globally that is 100% focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines to treat and prevent HIV. The company was set up with GSK as the majority shareholder, with Pfizer and Shionogi as minority shareholders, although Pfizer has now sold its stake to Shionogi. From the beginning, the company was created to help change the world by contributing to the end of the HIV epidemic.
That mission still guides us today. The only way to end the epidemic is through broad access to treatment and PrEP, alongside continued innovation. We have a strong portfolio of licensed medicines that we make available globally, and we continue to build a strong pipeline shaped by what patients need most.
How do you make sure HIV medicines reach patients across very different markets around the world?
We take different approaches depending on the market. In wealthier countries, we work with governments and payers to ensure access to our medicines. In middle-income countries, we use low per-unit value, high-volume tenders so people living with HIV can access treatment more broadly.
In low-income countries, we grant royalty-free voluntary licenses so generics can manufacture our medicines cheaply and distribute them across Africa. We have done tech transfer to about 16 generic manufacturers, and as a result dolutegravir is now widely used across sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 40.8 million people living with HIV, 26 million are on a dolutegravir-based regimen. That matters because if you are virally suppressed, you will not pass HIV on, which is central to ending the epidemic.
You mentioned long-acting injectables for both treatment and prevention. What led ViiV to develop that approach?
We used patient insight to drive the evolution of our pipeline. Patients told us they struggle with adherence, they forget to take medication, and they fear viral rebound and passing HIV on to others. Many also live with stigma, whether that is fear of someone finding their medication or the emotional burden of taking a daily tablet that reminds them of their diagnosis.
As a result of that feedback, we developed long-acting injectables. Today, patients can receive a shot every two months for treatment or prevention and then not have to think about HIV again until the next visit. It is the first and only long-acting injectable for the treatment of HIV, and it offers something much more private, discreet, and liberating for many people.
How does the every-two-month injectable compare with the daily pills that have long been the standard of care?
In prevention, it is superior to daily pills. In treatment, it is non-inferior, so effectively the same in terms of efficacy. But what is particularly striking is patient preference. Across multiple studies, when patients have experienced both options and are given the choice, between 85% and 90% prefer long-acting injectables to oral treatment.
The reasons are straightforward. You do not have to remember to take a pill every day, and that matters because many people fail on oral medicines because they do not take them consistently. The second factor is stigma. The injectable is much more private and discreet, and that gives many people a sense of freedom that daily tablets do not.
Has this long-acting approach become a new standard of care yet, or are oral treatments still dominant?
Whenever you launch something new, it takes time to build the market. Long-acting injectables are the fastest-growing segment and are reshaping the HIV landscape, but oral medicines still dominate in volume. In treatment, we are the only company with a long-acting injectable, and it is gaining share rapidly. In PrEP, the category is also growing quickly.
The challenge is not price, because it is priced the same as oral medicines. The real issue is healthcare system capacity. Prescribing a box of pills is straightforward, but bringing patients into the office every two months for an injection is more resource-intensive. That is exactly why our pipeline is focused on extending the interval, with every-four-month options coming and every-six-month treatment and PrEP planned by the end of the decade.
You recently shared early data on your every-six-month program. What did those results show?
We presented three pieces of data related to our every-six-month program. First, we showed a third-generation integrase inhibitor, VH184. Integrase inhibitors are the backbone of most HIV regimens because they have a high barrier to resistance, and VH184 appears to have a unique resistance profile that may allow it to be used even in people resistant to current integrase inhibitors.
We also have two possible companion options: a capsid inhibitor, VH499, which supports every-six-month use and appears to avoid drug-drug interactions, and a broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody, which has already shown four-month suppression when paired with an integrase inhibitor and is now being studied for six-month use. We expect to decide in the middle of the year which option to take forward, and we are also advancing every-six-month PrEP.
Alongside treatment and prevention, do you also work on the possibility of a cure for HIV?
Yes, we do.
Over the next 20 years, our job is to keep improving treatment and prevention with longer-acting medicines, because that is one of the best ways to help end the epidemic. But beyond that, we are also making a significant investment in cure research.
HIV is an incredibly tricky virus because it mutates quickly and hides silently in the body as latent virus. To achieve a cure, you would need to wake up those latent viruses, identify them, and then clear them from the body. A complete permanent cure may be difficult, but it may be possible to create long periods of remission, perhaps three to five years, between interventions. We are pursuing several mechanisms, including broadly neutralizing antibodies and therapeutic vaccines, and collaboration across the field will be essential.
Do you think this broader move toward longer-acting medicines in HIV will influence other areas of healthcare as well?
Yes, I do. Across the industry, there is growing interest in bringing longer-acting medicines to patients. This is not just about biology anymore, but also about the chemistry, manufacturing, and design of medicines in ways that let patients live with disease more easily.
That is a powerful shift. Whether someone is managing their own condition, caring for a child, or supporting an elderly relative, reducing the burden of treatment can make an enormous difference. It makes disease a smaller part of people’s lives, and I think that is a very important and very patient-centered direction for healthcare.
What are your key priorities over the next 12 months, and what are you most excited about?
Over the next 12 months, I am most excited about moving the pipeline forward. That means launching every-four-month long-acting injectables and continuing progress toward every-six-month options in both PrEP and treatment. I know that is what patients are longing for, and it has the potential to be a real game changer in how HIV is managed.
Over the longer term, I am also very excited about the clinical data beginning to emerge on our cure assets. Whenever I meet patients, at some point they ask, “Will there ever be a cure?” I want to be able to offer something more concrete and hopeful in response. That is what makes this work so meaningful, and why I feel lucky every day to lead a company focused entirely on treating, preventing, and one day curing HIV.
