Gilead’s price blocks UK access to groundbreaking HIV prevention tool

Joint statement responding to NICE Draft Guidance on long action lenacapavir for HIV prevention

This preliminary NICE ruling, which concludes that Gilead’s high price for long acting lenacapavir to prevent HIV means it cannot be made available on the NHS, is a substantial blow to HIV prevention in the UK. It will make it harder for the UK to meet its goal to end transmission of HIV, and puts the health of queer and trans people, sex workers, people who use drugs, and minoritised communities at risk.

The responsibility for this outcome lies with Gilead, who have set their exorbitant price to maximise profits, far in excess of the cost of making the drug. Researchers estimate it can be profitably produced for as little as $35 per person per year - a tiny fraction of Gilead’s $28,000 price tag. Their greed is wilfully delaying HIV prevention efforts and its impact in the UK and in countries around the world.

This ruling comes after NICE has recently increased its cost effectiveness thresholds following the coordinated threats posed to the UK by the US administration and the pharmaceutical industry. That campaign of pressure resulted in an US-UK agreement that rips up the UK’s price controls and will double the amount of NHS funds diverted into the hands of big pharma over the next decade. Experts estimate it will cost over 200,000 lives in England alone.

The government must recognise that the root cause of unaffordable medicines is the monopoly pricing of the pharmaceutical industry. It must learn from past battles to ensure affordable access to HIV PrEP products in England, when the government bypassed Gilead’s monopoly to provide access via a large-scale clinical trial, and communities took control over their own lives by establishing routes to accessing affordable generic medicines.

We cannot allow Gilead to hold our communities to ransom. The government must immediately set in motion actions to utilise legal flexibilities that can overcome Gilead’s monopoly and deliver access to affordable, generic LEN-LA, and urgently commit to a review of the US-UK pharmaceuticals deal.

ACT UP London

Just Treatment

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