A new study by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has found that patients who struggle to take daily HIV pills can benefit from long-acting injectable treatments.

Findings of the study are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The publication of the JAMA article was timed to coincide with the presentation of the findings at the 2025 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which is being held in San Francisco from March 9 to 12.

The annual conference brings together researchers from around the world who are focused on HIV/AIDS and related conditions. The injectable treatments strategy could also help stop the spread of HIV by keeping more patients from being infectious.

In 2021, federal regulators approved the first long-acting antiretroviral (LA-ART) injectable, which is a combination of long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine.