New Innovative HIV Care is Changing as Patients Live Longer
Incredible advancements have been made in HIV care since the beginning of the epidemic, and today, people living with HIV who have access to medication can expect to live as long as the general population.1
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With nearly half of people living with HIV in the U.S. over the age of 50, HIV research and treatment efforts have shifted to consider how to optimize care over the long-term and reduce the number of medications in a complete regimen.2
Dr. Harmony Garges, Chief Medical Officer at ViiV Healthcare, joined me to discuss key information on the advancements in HIV care as patients grow older and where treatment may be headed next. Visit the websites Dovato.com and Rukobia.com for more information.
About Our GuestÂ
Dr. Harmony Garges is the Chief Medical Officer at ViiV Healthcare – the only pharmaceutical company 100% dedicated to HIV – where she is responsible for Regulatory, Safety, and Medical Affairs across the company’s innovative pipeline and portfolio. Just like the company she works for, Harmony’s guiding mission is to ensure that no person living with HIV is left behind.
After obtaining her MD degree and completing her pediatrics residency at Duke University, Harmony pursued her interests in infectious diseases further with fellowships in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology at Duke, along with her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following her training, Harmony maintained an active clinical practice, seeing children and adolescents living with HIV and other infectious diseases at Duke from 2005 through 2018.
In 2005, Harmony first joined GSK’s HIV program in the Infectious Diseases group, working on global development programs as project physician leader. In this role she oversaw three successful New Drug and Marketing Authorization Applications and provided medical leadership and strategy for the development of various other anti-infectives including the first time in human trials of dolutegravir – the most prescribed HIV medicine in the world.
Subsequently, Harmony joined the Global Clinical Safety & Pharmacovigilance team at GSK, where she provided safety strategy and governance for several large global clinical development programs in Pharma. She then led a large, global team overseeing the safety aspects of GSK’s large Classic and Established Medicines portfolio. From there, she joined the Consumer Health business at GSK, where she spent three years as the Chief Medical Officer. She then joined ViiV Healthcare in 2016 and has held several roles in Global Medical Affairs before assuming her current role of Chief Medical Officer at the company in 2019.
1 HIV Treatment Overview. HIV.gov. Last Updated: June 7, 2022. Last Accessed: June 29, 2022. https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/staying-in-hiv-care/hiv-treatment/hiv-treatment-overview.
2 Aging with HIV. HIV.gov. Last Updated: January 20, 2022. Last Accessed: May 11, 2022. https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/living-well-with-hiv/taking-care-of-yourself/aging-with-hiv.
