GSK’s Vi­iV spon­sors new sea­son of Ru­Paul TV show to spark HIV pre­ven­tion con­ver­sa­tions

GSK’s Vi­iV Health­care is get­ting in­to a new kind of race on Fri­day — “Ru­Paul’s Drag Race” re­al­i­ty show on MTV — as the spon­sor of sea­son 16. The HIV-fo­cused phar­ma is lever­ag­ing its new part­ner­ship with the “cul­tur­al phe­nom­e­non” show to gen­er­ate con­ver­sa­tions about HIV pre­ven­tion, a GSK spokesper­son said in an email.

Vi­iV’s drug Apre­tude (cabote­gravir) is the first long-act­ing in­jectable for HIV PrEP ap­proved in late 2021. Two oth­er FDA-ap­proved PrEP op­tions, Tru­va­da and De­scovy, both from Gilead Sci­ences, are dai­ly oral med­i­cines. Gilead is al­so work­ing to­ward ap­proval for its own long-act­ing in­jectable, Sun­len­ca (al­ready ap­proved to treat HIV), for PrEP.

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