“By 2025, a new HIV prevention drug could reach the poorest countries,” a health official predicts

By the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, a new long-acting HIV prevention medication may be available in the world’s poorest nations, a global health official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s chief of supply operations, Hui Yang, stated that the goal is to begin delivery of Gilead Sciences’ (GILD.O) new tablet lenacapavir on that day. The injectable medication must first obtain regulatory authorization from organizations such as the World Health Organization and the US Food and Drug Administration, she noted, among other things.

Lenacapavir, which costs about $42,250 for the first year of therapy in the US, is already authorized for use as a treatment for HIV that is resistant to multiple drugs. Gilead is pursuing authorization for the new usage worldwide after clinical trials this year demonstrated that it is also highly effective at preventing infection.

Regarding the equality issue that has dogged the fight against HIV for decades, Yang stated, “We don’t want…low and low-middle income countries to wait, to be at the back of the line,” when these approvals come in.

In order to prevent this, the Global Fund announced on Tuesday that it would collaborate with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, to promote affordable access to the expensive medication in nations they work with “from day one.”

The organizations stated that they wanted to reach at least two million individuals over a three-year period, although they did not elaborate on how this may be accomplished.

In order to produce and market lenacapavir more affordably in 120 low- and middle-income nations, Gilead inked agreements with six generic medicine manufacturers in October of this year. The decision drew criticism for excluding nations, particularly those in Latin America.

Yang stated that they will collaborate with all of the companies concerned, but no agreement has been reached with Gilead or any of these generic producers as of yet.

A request for comment from Gilead Sciences was not immediately answered.