New blister packaging design meant to be convenient, discreet

The single-tablet regimen Dovato is now available in a new blister pack option, announced the drug’s maker, ViiV Healthcare. 

Designed to be small and discreet, the new packaging is perforated and measures about the size of a credit card. A 30-count box contains five sheets of tablets. The sheets allow people living with HIV who are taking the medication to view the number of pills they have left and track their doses. 

“The Dovato blister pack is designed to help address some of the challenges we hear from the HIV community, which include stigma and convenience, and offers a discreet package which may fit more seamlessly into people’s daily routines,” said Lynn Baxter Head of ViiV’s North American operations. 

The FDA approved Dovato’s blister pack on Nov. 3, 2023. It is available now in the U.S. and will be offered in some European markets later this year. Dovato will continue to be available in a 30-pill bottle. 

Dovato is a once-daily, single-pill, two-drug combination of dolutegravir, an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) and lamivudine, a nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI). 

ViiV is majority owned by pharmaceutical company GSK, with Pfizer and Shionogi as shareholders.