The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Truvada to reduce HIV transmission in uninfected, high-risk individuals.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a pill to help prevent HIV transmission.
The US agency had previously endorsed Gilead Sciences' pill Truvada for use by HIV-negative individuals who are at high-risk of contracting the disease.
These groups include gay and straight people who practice unsafe sex, as well as serodiscrodant couples (couples where only one partner is HIV-positive).
'Truvada alone should not be used to prevent HIV infection,' Dr. Debra Birnkrant, director of antiviral products at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a news conference.
'The FDA is approving Truvada, in combination with safe sex practices, to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV infection in at-risk adults.
These safe sex practices include HIV testing every three months, using condoms during sex and adhering to daily recommended dosing.
Birnkrant said that the extra prescribing of Truvada could help achieve the government's National HIV/AIDS Strategy goal of reducing the number of new HIV infections in the US by 25% by 2015.
Some AIDS advocacy groups, however, are opposed to Truvada being made available for PReP saying it could give patients a false sense of security.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President Michael Weinstein said: 'The FDA's approval of Gilead's Truvada as a form of HIV prevention today without any requirement for HIV testing is completely reckless and a move that will ultimately set back years of HIV prevention efforts'.
Weinstein also pointed to the drug's high cost and potential side effects.
AHF said that Truvada could lead to complications in healthy people, saying the antiretroviral is associated with kidney problems and people could develop a resistance to the drug.
AHF also estimates the cost of Truvada at $14,000 (€11,402) a year.
Truvada, available since 2004 to treat people already living with HIV, can now be prescribed by health professionals as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PReP) treatment that may reduce the risk of HIV transmission by up to 42% in healthy gay and bisexual men.
An estimated 1.2 million Americans and 83,000 people in the UK have HIV.
Earlier this month, the FDA also approved an at-home HIV test.
The OraQuick test, by OraSure Technologies, should be available in 30,000 pharmacies, grocery stores and online retailers by October 2012.
The at-home test, considered by the FDA since 2005, uses a mouth swab and gives results in 20 to 40 minutes.