Gilead Makes a Deal to Distribute Lenacapavir

Clinical trials are nowhere near done—all about the money? Plus, they finally admit PrEP isn’t working

Today we’ll be discussing the following article published in the New York Times regarding a deal Gilead has struck regarding distribution of their twice-yearly injectable “anti-HIV” drug lenacapavir.

Gilead Agrees to Allow Generic Version of Groundbreaking H.I.V. Shot in Poor Countries

Two quotes:

There has been an urgent need for a more effective PrEP product because the existing H.I.V. prevention efforts, including oral PrEP drugs, have not proved effective at ending new infections among some of the most vulnerable groups.

I’ll let that sit and will address it later. 99% effective?

And in case we wondered if the drug companies are in it for the money, we have this:

Gilead charges $42,250 per patient per year for lenacapavir in the United States, where it is approved as a treatment for H.I.V. The company has said nothing about what lenacapavir will cost when used to prevent H.I.V. infections, a process called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

Did I read that correctly? $42,250 per patient per year? Given that these medications are meant to be taken for a lifetime, that’s quite the paycheck for Gilead Sciences. I guess they need the money to pay off the 26,000 plaintiffs that are suing the company for the harms caused to them by Truvada.