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I’d like to hear Ohm’s take on this. How was Gilead able to achieve 100% success in their trial?

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Preventing HIV is much easier than treating it after the virus establishes itself. Gilead's drug is a capsid inhibitor when the capsid (envelope) surrounding the RNA is disrupted the virus cannot reproduce. Why HIV is so insidious is that as reproduction ramps up it destroys the immune system response leading to out of control reproduction of the virus. With a very effective capsid inhibitor the HIV count will remain extremely low and the immune system can remain effective and kill off any virus that exists. Why they would choose women is that the transmissibility is lower vaginally than anally.

It will be interesting to see if that 100% effectiveness rate continues once approved.