Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes a newly announced agreement to expand access to a more affordable injectable version of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention. The deal between the drug developer, Gilead Sciences, and two Indian generic manufacturers, Dr. Reddy’s and Hetero, will make lenacapavir available to 120 countries and territories at a price of $40 per person per year starting in 2027.
However, the licensing agreement currently leaves out various low- and middle-income countries where approximately one quarter of new HIV infections occur.
HIV remains a key global public health challenge, with 1.3 million people becoming newly infected with HIV in 2023 alone. Lenacapavir, a highly effective injection administered just twice per year, represents a transformative advance in HIV prevention—particularly for communities facing stigma, criminalization, and systemic barriers to taking daily pills. Increasing access to this game-changing form of prevention is critical at a time when supporting services and care for key populations at risk of contracting HIV is being deprioritized by governments. Yet current access strategies cover less than 10 percent of the global need as Gilead continues to prioritize profits over epidemic control.
