During the final stage trials, an injection of two anti-retroviral drugs - cabotegravir and rilpirivine - was found to be just as effective as the standard treatment.
This new medication differs from the standard treatment that most people infected with HIV currently take, which involves taking a combination of three or more drugs.
At present the new medication has to be administered by a trained nurse or doctor, but researchers are hoping that future versions could be self-injected and easy to be administered by the patient.
According to Dr John Pottage, chief scientific and medical officer at ViiV Healthcare, the specialist pharmaceutical company running the trial: “This new medical approach is great step towards reducing the treatment burden for people living with HIV.
“If approved, this new regimen would give people living with HIV one month between each dose of anti-retroviral therapy, changing HIV treatment from 365 dosing days per year to just 12."
Experts are hopeful that replacing a daily regimen of multiple pills with a single injection will encourage more people to keep up with their medication which would also help to reduce the spread of HIV.
During the ATLAS trial, 618 patients from 13 countries were given a three-pill standard treatment before switching to the monthly injection.
The new results show the trial met its primary "endpoint", or goal, by demonstrating that the jab matched the standard treatment for effectiveness over a period of 48 weeks.
