A life-saving HIV preventative drug with nearly 100% efficacy passed its latest round of trials, providing hope to millions worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world. Although advocates celebrate the arrival of this new drug, many are skeptical that the twice-a-year injection will be made affordable to people in the low-income countries that need it most.
Revealed at the AIDS 2024 Conference in Munich this past July, the results of a groundbreaking new study on HIV prevention found that a promising new preventative treatment called lenacapavir had a 100% prevention rate of the virus. The discovery was made during a double-blind, randomized study of 5,300 women, in which none of the injection-receiving participants had contracted HIV in the three years since the trial began. The remarkable results halted the trial and required that the injection be offered to all participants.
The study focused on women in sub-Saharan Africa, as 67% of the world’s population living with HIV resides in the region. Nevertheless, the findings will benefit all 38.4 million people with HIV around the globe. Experts expect the new injection to be a vast improvement over the daily PrEP pills, which historically have had low adherence rates and, therefore, low efficacy in preventing HIV.
However, with a current cost of $42,250 per year for a new patient, lenacapavir remains inaccessible to most living with HIV. For this reason, there is an urgency to approve the manufacturing of a generic and more affordable option.
Researchers must prove a generic version to be effective before it can be disseminated to the public, delaying its availability to those in need. For this reason, Gilead Sciences, the maker of the treatment, states that they will work to allow generic treatments to be manufactured and distributed to low-income countries. However, advocates have doubts and continue to call for immediate low-cost access to the drug.
By Sarah Ortega