While AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) welcomed news of Gilead’s expansion of lenacapavir, a long-acting HIV treatment, to 120 countries through voluntary licensing agreements with six generic manufacturers, key HIV-affected countries excluded from the deal—particularly those in Latin America and others—must also have affordable access to this breakthrough treatment, irrespective of their World Bank income classification.

“This license excludes 2 million people living with HIV in Latin America — notably in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. It excludes them because Gilead sees the Latin American market as a place where it can profit off the backs of sick people. Generic access to lenacapavir is a step in the right direction, especially for improving treatment adherence, but a drug with this much promise to save countless lives must be affordable to all nations that need it,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein.

“And while generic manufacturers in India, Pakistan, Egypt, and the U.S. have been granted licenses,” added Weinstein, “South Africa has a robust pharmaceutical sector and should have been included in the deal to address its own enormous HIV burden and help support the response across the rest of the continent at a reduced cost.”

Further concerns remain around pricing transparency as Gilead and the licensees are yet to clarify how lenacapavir will be priced in the included countries. AHF strongly believes lenacapavir must be made accessible to all countries at an affordable price that reflects the realities on the ground and is in line with the global HIV/AIDS targets.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global non-profit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to over 2 million people in 48 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. We are currently the largest non-profit provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the world. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

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