Lenacapavir Injection Prevents HIV Amid High Cost, Monopoly Issues 

Lenacapavir Injection Prevents HIV Amid High Cost, Monopoly Issues. Credit | AP
Lenacapavir Injection Prevents HIV Amid High Cost, Monopoly Issues. Credit | AP

United States: In a recent breakthrough study, medical experts revealed an injection to prevent HIV infections administered twice a year. 

More about the finding 

The result became public after it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, which showed that in a randomized trial involving around five thousand young women and girls in South Africa and Uganda, who all were negative for HIV in their lifetime. 

According to Sarah Palmer, the co-director of the Center for Virus Research at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research in Sydney, who was not part of the peer-reviewed study, “This appears to be a new breakthrough for HIV prevention. If these injections can be widely distributed at low cost, it would dramatically reduce the risk of new HIV infections worldwide,” as the Washington Post reported. 

“It is especially encouraging this research focused on young women in Africa who are so highly at-risk for HIV infection,” she added. 

Lenacapavir Injection Prevents HIV Amid High Cost, Monopoly Issues. Credit | AP
Lenacapavir Injection Prevents HIV Amid High Cost, Monopoly Issues. Credit | AP

More about the Infection and the treatment 

Every year, across the world, more than 1.3 million cases of HIV infections come across in women and girls, amounting to almost 45 percent of them. This percentage has risen to even 68 percent in the sub-Saharan regions of Africa. 

These shots by drugmaker Gilead Sciences are of a drug called Lenacapavir, which is marketed under the brand name Sunlenca and has gotten approval for HIV treatment in the US. 

The trial aimed to prove that its safety and efficiency in protecting against Infection is supreme among adolescent girls and young women. 

Additionally, a separate trial is underway to check the same in men. 

The scientists discovered that the shots were better in giving results than daily pills, where only 1.5 to 1.8 percent of participants of the trials receiving daily doses contracted HIV from their partners. The trial had to halt, and later, the injection was offered to them. 

The researchers examined that the incidence of HIV was lower when shots were used, as compared to the usual rate of HIV in the community. 

The high cost of the lenacapavir  

Various doctors worldwide are now asking to break Gilead’s monopoly on lenacapavir, allow mass production of the drug, and reduce its cost. In the United States, lenacapavir costs USD 42,250 per patient per year. 

According to Helen Bygrave, a chronic disease adviser at Doctors Without Borders, “Lenacapavir could be life-changing for people at risk of getting HIV and could reverse the epidemic if it is made affordable in the countries with the highest rate of new infections,” as the Washington Post reported. 

Additionally, earlier, Gilead had promised to lower the cost of the drug, especially in low-income countries.