Innovative treatment could end AIDS by 2030 – Euractiv

A breakthrough drug presented at the International AIDS Conference in Munich could change that, but its cost is prohibitive.

The 25th International AIDS Conference (IAS) was held in Munich from July 22 to 26, with more than 10,000 doctors, public health experts and activists from 175 countries attending the world’s largest annual HIV and AIDS conference.

Despite significant progress in developing prevention medicines and reducing the number of new HIV infections each year from 3.3 million nearly 40 years ago to 1.3 million today, challenges remain.

“We at UNAIDS will continue to advocate for an end to all the inequities that drive the AIDS epidemic and global health disparities,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Factors contributing to the epidemic and inequalities include insufficient funding and access, stigma, discrimination, and the uneven distribution of medicines between high-income and low-income countries.

New drugs spark optimism, protests

Significant progress has been made in HIV treatment, and people can live a high quality of life with appropriate medical treatment.

U.S. pharmaceutical giant Gilead has twice-yearly injections of Lenapavi Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has made promising progress, showing 100% effectiveness in an interim Phase 3 HIV prevention trial of more than 5,000 cisgender women in South Africa and Uganda.

PrEP is a preventive treatment for people at high risk of HIV infection and is a daily pill. Lenacapavir is a twice-yearly injection that is more suitable for vulnerable groups such as sex workers, gay men, transgender people and drug users who often avoid testing and treatment.

expensive

one analyze An analysis of production costs for active pharmaceutical agreements conducted by multiple universities and presented at the conference by Andrew Hill suggests that the price of injectable ranacapavir could be reduced to about $35-40 per patient per year.

This would require voluntary licensing agreements and guaranteed purchase agreements for generic drug production, the paper argues.

Currently, renacavir is approved for treatment, not prevention, and Gilead has set the first-year cost at $42,250.

MSF activists take part in 2024 AIDS campaign called Calling on the world to take immediate action to break Gilead’s monopoly on Levitra.

“100% effectiveness requires 100% accessibility.” explain Asia Russell of Health GAP, a global HIV advocacy group, said: “Rinapavir for HIV prevention is an intervention that has the potential to defeat the epidemic.”

Gilead has long undermined global access by excluding middle-income countries from voluntary licensing agreements and artificially limiting license holders.”

Chanting “people before profits” and “Gilead’s greed kills”, activists called on the company to commit to non-exclusive, transparent and geographically inclusive voluntary licensing agreements through the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool to ensure affordable medicines.

Beyond that, there’s great optimism that an mRNA-based HIV vaccine — a technology that has gained momentum during the pandemic — will become available in the near future.

Declining government attention

According to UNAIDS, Reportincreases in funding for HIV prevention are leading to declines in HIV incidence, but regions with the largest funding gaps—Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa—have made the least progress.

In contrastIn Central and Western Europe and North America, new HIV infections have fallen by 24% since 2010, and AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 34%.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) chaired the meeting explain More efforts must be made: “Why is (funding) so important? Because Global Fund-funded projects have saved 59 million lives. 59 million! The number speaks for itself.”

Likewise, Byanyima, emphasize Urgency: “World leaders have pledged to eliminate the AIDS pandemic as a threat to public health by 2030, and they can deliver on that promise only if they ensure the HIV response has the resources it needs and that everyone’s human rights are protected”.

(Editing by Catherine Feore)

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