Long-Acting Injectable Cabotegravir HIV PrEP Uptake, Adherence, and Persistence in Two Large US Integrated Healthcare Systems.

BACKGROUND

Long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA) was approved as HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in the United States in December 2021, but data are limited on uptake, adherence, and persistence in clinical practice.

METHODS

We extracted electronic health records of adults receiving oral or injectable PrEP during December 2021 to June 2024 at Kaiser Permanente (KP) Northern California and Mid-Atlantic States, 2 large integrated healthcare systems. We used χ 2 tests to compare characteristics of CAB-LA users and oral-PrEP-only users. Among CAB-LA users, we assessed adherence to bimonthly injections after lead-in doses (weeks 0 and 4) and used Kaplan-Meier methods to estimate persistence.

RESULTS

Among 23,311 individuals accessing oral or injectable PrEP, 180 (0.8%) received CAB-LA, with 23.9% having no documentation of previous PrEP use at KP. Compared with oral-PrEP-only users, a lower proportion of CAB-LA users were commercially insured (82.2% vs 89.2%; P = 0.014) and a higher proportion were Black (18.9% vs 10.2%) or Hispanic (34.4% vs 23.6%; P < 0.001 across race/ethnicity categories). Of 688 non-lead-in CAB-LA injections, 90.4% were administered within 8 weeks +7 days after the previous injection. Persistence on CAB-LA was 87.9% and 74.9% at 6 and 12 months, respectively. There were no incident HIV infections during CAB-LA use.

CONCLUSIONS

CAB-LA is engaging new users, including populations traditionally underrepresented in PrEP uptake, and adherence and persistence are high in clinical practice. However, uptake of CAB-LA is extremely low, suggesting population affect will be limited without efforts to expand implementation and use.