Introduction: Lenacapavir is the first HIV-1 capsid inhibitor administered subcutaneously twice yearly. While lenacapavir is currently only indicated as salvage therapy, it has the potential to become a foundation of future treatments and to revolutionize HIV prevention.
Areas covered: This review summarizes the pharmacology of lenacapavir with particular emphasis placed on its drug-drug interaction (DDI) potential as it is used in treatment-experienced individuals who often present multiple comorbidities and polypharmacy. The effect of lenacapavir on drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters as well as findings of DDI studies are summarized. These data were used to predict DDIs with 1073 comedications. Finally, the management of selected DDIs is discussed. Conferences/workshops abstracts (i.e. CROI, IAS, EACS, HIV Glasgow, PK workshop) were screened using the terms: 'lenacapavir,' 'capsid inhibitor,' 'GS-6207,' and a PubMed search was used to compile data until September 2024.
Expert opinion: Lenacapavir has a favorable DDI profile with 80% of evaluated comedications estimated to have no clinically significant DDIs. More studies are needed to address pharmacological gaps including the pharmacokinetics of lenacapavir in special populations, its transfer across the blood-brain barrier or the placenta as well as the possibility to manage DDIs with moderate/strong inducers by reducing lenacapavir dosing interval.
Keywords: Lenacapavir; antiretroviral; capsid inhibitor; drug−drug interactions; long-acting.