Prevention is Superior to Treatment

Currently, a once-daily pill exists to prevent HIV infection. However, adherence to this daily regimen can be challenging for some people.

Rahima Benhabbour, Ph.D., who holds appointments in the UNC/N.C. State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is co-principal investigator on a grant to develop an injectable implant that delivers long lasting protection against HIV infection.

“This long-acting injectable formulation could provide a discrete and efficient method to protect against HIV infection and improve adherence, which is one of the major challenges of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP,” said Benhabbour. “The formulation is adaptable to a number of drugs alone or in combination and can be fine tuned to meet a targeted release regimen.”

Read the complete Carolina Story from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy…

The Eshelman Institute for Innovation is made possible by a $100 million gift from Fred Eshelman to accelerate the creation and development of ideas leading to discoveries and transformative changes in education, research and health care. To learn more about the EII’s impact, visit unceii.org/impact.