The drug lenacapavir could be a “real game-changer” in the fight against HIV, according to an open letter to Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day signed by a range of former world leaders, AIDS groups, activists, actors and others. Gilead responded that it is in talks with governments and organisations about how to expand access to the drug. Lenacapavir, which was approved for use in the United States and the European Union in 2022, only needs to be injected twice a year, making it particularly suited for people normally “excluded from high quality health care,” the open letter said.
“We urge Gilead to ensure that people in the Global South living with or at risk of HIV can access this groundbreaking medicine at the same time as people in the Global North can,” it added. The signatories urged Gilead to license the drug on the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which would allow for cheaper generic versions to be manufactured. Two thirds of the 39 million people living with HIV were in Africa in 2022, according to the World Health Organisation.
Africa also accounted for 380,000 of the 630,000 AIDS-related deaths across the world that year, the WHO figures showed. The letter said the “world now recalls with horror and shame that it took 10 years and 12 million lives lost before generic versions” of the first antiretroviral drugs became available worldwide. “This innovation could help end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030—but only if all who would benefit.
