The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is calling on pharmaceutical companies to provide access to new life-saving medicines and is urging pharmaceutical companies to act more quickly and ensure “affordable prices and competitive prices.” generics” in the market for new HIV drugs.
Lenacapavir, produced by Gilead Sciences, has been shown to be more than 95% effective in preventing HIV with just two doses per year, and the company is currently conducting trials of annual injections.
Agreement signed to improve access to HIV drugs in developing countries
Breakthrough drugs to stop new infections
ViiV Healthcare offers the injectable drug Cabotegravir, given once every two months to prevent HIV, which is already used in some countries. Month-long vaginal rings are also used. Longer-acting pills and vaginal rings are being tested.
“We have no problem with profiteering, but we will not tolerate profiteering,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “These new technologies offer us a real chance to end AIDS by 2030.”
These revolutionary, long-acting drugs could stem new HIV infections and are already being used to suppress the virus in some people living with HIV. But their potential can only be exploited if all people likely to benefit from it have access to it.
For an increase in the production of generics
Gilead and ViiV have granted generic manufacturing licenses to a number of countries, which is to be welcomed, but they are moving too slowly. Generics are not expected until next year and many countries have been left out.
Almost all of Latin America, a region where HIV infections are increasing, was excluded. Additionally, to cover the entire world, Gilead has only licensed six companies to manufacture generic versions of the drug, with no producers in sub-Saharan Africa.
For these drugs to be widely available and affordable, it is necessary to increase the production of generics, insists UNAIDS.
-Gilead has not announced a price for lenacapavir for prevention. However, when used as a treatment in the United States, the drug can cost around $40,000 per year per person.
GeneXpert machine used for HIV detection and prevention in Ghana.
Only 3.5 million people will benefit from preventive medicine in 2023
However, a study suggests that, if 10 million people are affected, generics could only cost $40 per person per year, a thousand times less.
By the end of 2023, only 3.5 million people have used pre-exposure prophylaxis. UNAIDS’ goal is to reach 10 million people with HIV preventive medicine by the end of 2025.
Today, 30 million of the 40 million people living with HIV are on treatment – a huge but long-awaited achievement that has destroyed families and cost far too many lives.
“Although these new drugs constitute neither a cure nor a vaccine, they could stop the HIV pandemic,” argued the head of UNAIDS.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) recently announced an agreement to provide lenacapavir to 2 million people over the next three years.
