People living with HIV could manage their condition just as effectively with monthly antiviral injections as with daily oral treatment, two landmark phase-3 trials suggest.

The findings represent a major step forward in developing a new long-acting antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen, the researchers said.

Both the UK FLAIR (First Long-Acting Injectable Regimen) and US ATLAS (ART as Long Acting Suppression) ­trials compared the efficacy of once-monthly cabotegravir plus rilpivirine IM injections with daily oral ART.

The FLAIR cohort comprised 566 treatment-naive participants, whereas the ATLAS researchers tested the long-acting therapy in 614 patients who had achieved viral load suppression with standard oral ART.