When the HIV shot stopped working, a new drug combo brought it back under control

For 46 patients at UCSF's Ward 86, the long-acting HIV injection had quit working — the virus had learned to dodge it. Their doctors swapped in a different kind of drug, lenacapavir, which cracks open the virus's protective shell instead of attacking from the usual angles. Within 13 weeks the virus was back under control, and two years later every patient still had undetectable levels. No daily pills, no pharma money behind the study — it was federally funded and published in JAMA Network Open.