Researchers from BWH and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently developed a potential solution: an ingestible, slow-release pill that stays in the stomach to deliver a once-weekly, long-lasting dose of HIV medications. If successful, the innovative approach could prevent thousands of new HIV cases.

C. Giovanni Traverso, MB, BChir, PhD, gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer in the Division of Gastroenterology, and members of his lab collaborated with the Langer Lab at MIT to design the system. The pill’s effectiveness in delivering HIV treatment in preclinical models once per week was equal to – or better than – daily doses, Traverso said.