Gilead Sciences and the Global Fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria on Wednesday that they had completed plans to deliver a long-acting HIV prevention medication to countries with a low income, despite the absence of financing an important US initiative aimed at tackling worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic.
According to the agreement, Gilead said that it will deliver sufficient doses at cost price to reach up to 2 million people for three years in countries supported by the Global Fund. Both parties said that the price conditions are confidential and the global fund refused to comment on how many doses would be ordered immediately.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead’s Lenacapavir last month, a twice-year injection, good for preventing HIV infection in adults and adolescents. The World Health Organization and other supervisors are currently revising it.
Last year, Gilead docked royalty-free deals with which six generic medicine makers can make cheap versions of the medicine in 120 low and middle income countries, but those supplies will take time to get started.
Some AIDS experts have said that the new medicine could help put an end to the 44-year epidemic that infects 1.3 million people per year and is estimated by the World Health Organization to have killed more than 42 million.
The global fund said that it will give priority to access based on HIV incidence and prevention strategies, including countries in Africa Bezuiden The Sahara that have shown strong importance-in particular South Africa, that will be one of the first to roll out the medicine among about 10 other countries.
At the end of this year, the partners want to reach the first delivery at least one African country.
“For the first time, a tool to prevent HIV infection will be available in low and middle income countries at the same time in countries with a high income,” said Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, in an interview with Reuters. In the past this took years, he added.
Gilead, the Global Fund and the emergency plan of the US President for AIDS Relief had announced the plan in December.
However, the administration of US President Donald Trump, who took office in January, has withdrawn to Pepfar financing, which means that global HIV prevention programs are limited to pregnant and breastfeeding.
In response to questions about the impact of the cutbacks on HIV programs worldwide, a spokesperson for the US Department of Foreign Affairs told Reuters: “Pepfar-Far-Far-Fasting Programs providing HIV care and treatment or prevention of mother-to-child transmission services are operational … All other Pepfar-Gefinanced Services are currently being managed.” They did not respond specifically to questions about Lenacapavir.
Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said he is still hopeful that the American editions to combat the epidemic will resume.
“We want to spend less on HIV over time because the incidence is lower … We have to impose resources on things that actually reduce the burden burden over time.”
Gilead also works with countries with an average income, many of which in Latin America, to make Lenacapavir accessible as quickly as possible, he said.
The medicine, which the Yeztugo brand name has, has an annual catalog price in the United States of $ 28,218.
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation promised $ 150 million earlier this year at the Global Fund, including money for the Lenacapavir initiative. Sands said that more donors were needed.
