For millions of people around the world, managing a long-term health condition means remembering to take medicines every day, often for years. But advances in long-acting medicines mean that some treatments now need to be taken only once a month, every few months or even twice a year.

Long-acting medicines are designed to release a drug gradually into the bloodstream. For some conditions, this could make treatment easier to manage and reduce the risk of missed doses.

Medicines prescribed for long-term conditions work best when taken as directed. But taking medicine regularly can be difficult, particularly when people need several medicines or multiple doses each day. Some people forget. Others may stop taking treatment when they start to feel better or because of side-effects.

Missed doses can have consequences. With antibiotics, for example, not taking treatment as prescribed can contribute to treatment failure and antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance happens when bacteria and other microbes change in ways that make medicines less effective against them. It’s estimated that bacterial antimicrobial resistance was associated with 4.95 million deaths worldwide in........

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