{"id":18425,"date":"2024-12-08T18:06:29","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T17:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=18425"},"modified":"2025-05-10T17:53:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T16:53:03","slug":"a-twice-yearly-shot-could-help-end-aids-but-only-if-it-can-get-to-everyone-who-needs-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2024\/12\/a-twice-yearly-shot-could-help-end-aids-but-only-if-it-can-get-to-everyone-who-needs-it\/","title":{"rendered":"A twice-yearly shot could help end AIDS, but only if it can get to everyone who needs it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PBS Commentary:<\/span><\/h1>\n

Dec 1, 2024 3:51 PM EST<\/span><\/h1>\n
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MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 It\u2019s been called the closest the world has ever come to a vaccine against the\u00a0AIDS<\/a>\u00a0virus.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0twice-yearly shot<\/a>\u00a0was 100 percent effective in preventing HIV infections in a study of women, and results published Wednesday show it worked nearly as well in men.<\/p>\n

Drugmaker\u00a0Gilead\u00a0said it will allow cheap, generic versions to be sold in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates \u2014 mostly in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. But it has excluded nearly all of\u00a0Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing, sparking concern the world is missing a critical opportunity to stop the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so far superior to any other prevention method we have, that it\u2019s unprecedented,\u201d said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. She credited Gilead for developing the drug, but said the world\u2019s ability to stop AIDS hinges on its use in at-risk countries.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0report\u00a0issued to mark World AIDS Day on Sunday, UNAIDS said that the number of AIDS death last year \u2014 an estimated 630,000 \u2014 was at its lowest since peaking in 2004, suggesting the world is now at \u201ca historic crossroads\u201d and has a chance to end the epidemic.<\/p>\n

The drug called lenacapavir is already sold under the brand name Sunlenca to treat HIV infections in the U.S., Canada, Europe and elsewhere. The company plans to seek authorization soon for Sunlenca to be used for HIV prevention.<\/p>\n

While there are other ways to guard against infection, like condoms,\u00a0daily pills,\u00a0vaginal rings\u00a0and bi-monthly shots, experts say the Gilead twice-yearly shots would be particularly useful for marginalized people often fearful of seeking care, including gay men, sex workers and young women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a miracle for these groups because it means they just have to show up twice a year at a clinic and then they\u2019re protected,\u201d said UNAIDS\u2019 Byanyima.<\/p>\n

Such was the case for Luis Ruvalcaba, a 32-year-old man in Guadalajara, Mexico, who participated in the latest published study. He said he was afraid to ask for the daily prevention pills provided by the government, fearing he would be discriminated against as a gay man. Because he took part in the study, he\u2019ll continue to receive the shots for at least another year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Latin American countries, there is still a lot of stigma, patients are ashamed to ask for the pills,\u201d said Dr. Alma Minerva P\u00e9rez, who recruited and enrolled a dozen study volunteers at a private research center in Guadalajara.<\/p>\n

How widely available the shots will be in Mexico through the country\u2019s health care system isn\u2019t yet known. Health officials declined to comment on any plans to buy Sunlenca for its citizens; daily pills to prevent HIV were made freely available via the country\u2019s public health system in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the possibility of using generics has opened, I have faith that Mexico can join,\u201d said P\u00e9rez.<\/p>\n

Byanyima said other countries besides Mexico that took part in the research were also excluded from the generics deal, including Brazil, Peru and Argentina. \u201cTo now deny them that drug is unconscionable.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Gilead said it has \u201can ongoing commitment to helping enable access to HIV prevention and treatment options where the need is the greatest.\u201d Among the 120 countries eligible for generic version are 18 mostly African countries that comprise 70 percent of the world\u2019s HIV burden.<\/p>\n

The drugmaker said it is also working on establishing \u201cfast, efficient pathways to reach all people who need or want lenacapavir for HIV prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, 15 advocacy groups in Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Guatemala and Colombia wrote to Gilead, asking for generic Sunlenca to be made available in Latin America, citing the \u201calarming\u201d inequity in access to new HIV prevention tools while infection rates were rising.<\/p>\n

While countries including Norway, France, Spain and the U.S. have paid more than $40,000 per year for Sunlenca, experts have calculated it could be produced for as little as $40 per treatment once generic production expands to cover 10 million people.<\/p>\n

Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University, said it will be enormously useful to have Sunlenca available in the hardest-hit countries in Africa and Asia. But he said the rising HIV rates among groups including gay men and transgender populations constituted \u201ca public health emergency\u201d in Latin America.<\/p>\n

Hannya Danielle Torres, a 30-year-old trans woman and artist who was in the Sunlenca study in Mexico, said she hoped the government would find a way to provide the shots. \u201cMexico may have some of the richest people in the world but it also has some of the most vulnerable people living in extreme poverty and violence,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

Another drugmaker, Viiv Healthcare, also left out most of Latin America when it allowed generics of its HIV prevention shot in about 90 countries. Sold as Apretude, the bi-monthly shots are about 80 percent to 90 percent effective in preventing HIV. They cost about $1,500 a year in middle-income countries, beyond what most can afford to pay.<\/p>\n

Asia Russell, executive director of the advocacy group Health Gap, said that with more than 1 million new HIV infections globally every year, established prevention methods are not enough. She urged countries like Brazil and Mexico to issue \u201ccompulsory licenses,\u201d a mechanism where countries suspend patents in a health crisis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strategy some countries embraced for previous HIV treatments, including in the late 1990s and 2000s when AIDS drugs were first discovered. More recently,\u00a0Colombia\u00a0issued its first-ever compulsory license for the key HIV treatment Tivicay in April, without permission from its drugmaker, Viiv.<\/p>\n

Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, an AIDS expert at South Africa\u2019s University of KwaZulu-Natal, said he had never seen a drug that appeared to be as effective as Sunlenca in preventing HIV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe missing piece in the puzzle now is how we get it to everyone who needs it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cheng reported from London.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n