This drug is the 'breakthrough of the year' — and it could mean the end of the HIV epidemic

<img src='https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5811×3874+0+0/resize/5811×3874!/?url=httppercent3Apercent2Fpercent2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.compercent2Fbcpercent2Fdepercent2F52a045a443cca25dc1dad309cd64percent2Fap24205636899403.jpg' alt='A pharmacist holds a vial of lenacapavir, on the Desmond Tutu Well being Basis's Masiphumelele Analysis Web site, in Cape City, South Africa. The drug's improvement has been heralded because the 2024 Breakthrough of the 12 months by the journal Science, which described it as representing “a pivotal step towards diminishing HIV/AIDS as a worldwide well being disaster.”‘/>

That is the title that Science journal is bestowing upon the treatment referred to as lenacapavir — a twice yearly injectable that forestalls an infection by the HIV virus.