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Humanity is closer to stopping HIV, and the biggest obstacle is the price of the drug that will do it Lenacapavir, an antiviral drug already approved as a treatment that costs $40,000 in the US, prevented 100% of infections in a study on African women with just two injections a year. UNAIDS is asking the drugmaker Gilead to reduce the cost in order to make it more widely available Four decades after the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), humankind is closer to having the tool to put an end to an epidemic that has caused 40 million deaths and incalculable suffering. Lenacapavir, an antiviral drug from the pharmaceutical company Gilead that has already been approved as a treatment of HIV infection in adults, has been shown to be able to prevent 100% of new infections in women if used preventively with a simple administration route: two subcutaneous injections per year. The Phase 3 trial data was presented on Wednesday at the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference, which is being held these days in Munich (Germany) and published in The New England Journal of Medicine. It is not a vaccine, but it is very similar. And it was astonishingly effective in a study among cisgender women (women assigned female at birth) in Africa. New trials are now investigating whether the molecule, as expected, will achieve the same results in other groups. You can read more about the article here |
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New ‘vaccine-like’ HIV drug hailed as game-changer could cost just R734 A new "vaccine-like" HIV drug that currently costs over R734 000 per person a year could be made for as little as R734, researchers estimated on Tuesday. The antiretroviral drug Lenacapavir, developed by US pharmaceutical giant Gilead, has been hailed as a potential game-changer in the fight against HIV. Early trials have found the treatment is 100 percent effective in preventing HIV infection. And it only needs to be injected twice a year, making the drug far easier to administer than current regimens requiring daily pills. "It's like having a vaccine basically," Andrew Hill, a researcher at the UK's Liverpool University, told AFP. The treatment currently costs patients over $40,000 (R 734 000) a year in a range of countries including the United States, France, Norway and Australia. New research, which Hill presented at the International AIDS Conference in Munich on Tuesday, looked into how much the cost of making the drug could come down if Gilead allowed for cheaper generic versions to be manufactured. A year's worth of the drug could be made for as little as $40 (R734) - 1,000 times less than the current price - according to the research, which has not been peer reviewed. You can read more about the article here |
Achieving the 10-10-10 HIV targets by 2025 Around the world countries are taking powerful steps to protect people’s rights, dignity, and health. Dominica and Namibia became the most recent to decriminalize same-sex relations. South Africa made strides towards decriminalizing sex work. Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that compulsory sterilization for transgender people is unconstitutional, and for the first time the essential role of harm reduction was recognized in a UN resolution on narcotic drugs. These achievements all contribute to the landmark 10-10-10 HIV targets, adopted by countries in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, to reduce new infections and tackle criminalization, stigma and discrimination and gender inequality, issues especially critical for people living with HIV and key populations, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, and the incarcerated. Yet, for every heartening step toward justice, setbacks and barriers remain. In the last three months alone, Georgia’s parliament moved to curb LGBTIQ+ rights, Iraq criminalized same-sex relationships, countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have signed into law sweeping restrictions on civil society and the Malawi courts upheld a ban on same-sex conduct. You can read more about the article here |
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7th Person Cured of HIV in 40-Year AIDS History In a rare medical achievement, a German man has become only the seventh person in the 40-year history of AIDS to be fully cured of HIV. The 60-year-old German, who wants to remain anonymous, completely recovered after receiving a stem transplant, the doctors have said. The man underwent the risky and painful procedure which is performed only on those who have both HIV and acute myeloid leukemia, or AML. The person started receiving the stem cell transplant in October 2015 and stopped taking his antiretroviral medicines in September 2018. Since then, he remained on viral remission with no rebound as confirmed by multiple ultra-sensitive tests that found no viable HIV in his body. “A healthy person has many wishes, a sick person only one,” the man reflected on his HIV-free status. The findings of the case will be presented at the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich by Dr. Christian Gaebler, a physician-scientist at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. You can read more about the findings here |
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