ViiV Healthcare is teaming up with TV personality, HIV and LGBTQ advocate Michelle Visage to help broaden awareness about new, longer-acting medicines that can significantly reduce the risk of HIV exposure.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicines have been around since 2012, when the FDA approved Gilead’s Truvada, a combination therapy of two antiretroviral drugs: emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.
Since then, long-acting injectables that only need to be taken every few months or just twice a year have been approved, too, making treatment easier.
ViiV, which is majority owned by GSK, is one of the leading companies in this space and markets the bimonthly PrEP medicine Apretude.
While that drug is not directly mentioned in this new campaign, it very much centers on “empower[ing] people to make informed decisions about long-acting injectable (LAI) HIV prevention, beyond the dosing schedules,” ViiV said in a June 1 statement.
The company said that while innovation in the PrEP space is ramping up, “factors such as stigma and lack of open dialogue between patients and providers can hinder honest conversations around prevention options.”
The idea of the campaign is to “learn more about the differences in LAI PrEP options and encouraging individuals to have deeper conversations with their doctors—getting ‘PrEP wise’”.
The push also features a new bright and fresh-looking website that aims to double down on the message: “Let’s be clear: injectable PrEP options are not all the same.” The site seeks to allow users to ask questions about PrEP medicines and how they are used.
“HIV prevention is not one-size-fits-all, and injectable PrEP options are not the same. Everyone’s day-to-day life, needs, and comfort level are different,” said Visage in the release.
“Real empowerment around sexual health and well-being includes having ‘PrEP Wisdom’ and knowing about the available options, including the differences in long-acting injectable PrEP beyond the dosing schedule, so you can work with your doctor to determine what may work best for you," she added.
Visage is well known as a permanent judge on the popular reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race.
The campaign comes as Apretude is battling a new contender in the PrEP market in the form of Gilead’s Yeztugo, which only needs to be taken twice a year.
Over the first quarter, the long-acting injectable locked down $166 million in sales, an “unprecedented launch trajectory” that is so far “exceeding our expectations,” Gilead chief commercial officer Johanna Mercier laid out on the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call on May 8.
In February, Gilead also launched a new direct-to-consumer campaign for Yeztugo that has put brand awareness and visibility on the upswing, Mercier said on the call.