Sunlenca (lenacapavir) introduced an entirely new mechanism for patients with multidrug-resistant HIV, who can exhaust every available class and be left without a viable regimen.
As the first capsid inhibitor approved, it disrupts multiple stages of the viral lifecycle, so no existing resistance pathway applies. Subcutaneous injections every six months follow oral loading, used with other antiretrovirals in adults with multidrug-resistant HIV-1 failing their current regimen.
Lenacapavir’s twice-yearly dosing made it the foundation for long-acting HIV prevention, and it has since been approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis. That far larger PrEP opportunity, rather than the original salvage indication, is where the molecule’s commercial value now sits.
