On June 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first medicine to prevent HIV that only has to be taken twice a year. People who are at high risk for HIV can now take the injection—called lenacapavir and sold as Yeztugo—just once every six months.

The approval is a milestone in the fight against HIV and could transform the epidemic. While anti-HIV drug treatments have helped millions of people suppress the virus to undetectable levels so that they don’t spread it to others—and have also allowed people who are HIV-negative to maintain their status when used to prevent infection—a regimen of daily pills means that compliance, and therefore effectiveness, is often not as strong as it should be.

In two studies, scientists at Gilead, which developed lenacapavir, showed that the drug was 96% effective at protecting cisgender women from becoming HIV positive as compared to daily oral pills (called PrEP, short for pre-exposure prophylaxis)

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