“Game changer” in the fight against HIV

“We call on Gilead to ensure that people in the Global South living with or at risk of HIV can access this groundbreaking medicine at the same time as people in the Global North.”

This call was made by more than 300 politicians, health experts and influential people in an open letter to Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day, in the context that the world has less than 6 years left to achieve the goal of ending HIV/AIDS.

Only about 6 in 10 adolescents living with HIV globally have access to antiretroviral drugs. Photo: UNICEF

The HIV treatment drug Lenacapavir is set to be approved for use in the US and the European Union (EU) in 2022, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Lenacapavir, sold under the brand name Sunlenca, has been shown to reduce viral loads in patients with multidrug-resistant HIV (resistant to other treatments). The drug only requires two injections a year and is particularly suitable for patients who cannot access high-quality healthcare.

The open letter called on the US pharmaceutical company Gilead to allow other pharmaceutical companies around the world to produce new versions of the HIV treatment drug Lenacapavir at affordable prices, to bring treatment opportunities to all patients who are most severely affected by the disease in developing countries, especially those who are stigmatized when receiving HIV treatment, including young women, people in the LGBT community, sex workers and people who inject drugs...

Signatories to the letter include former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President Milawi Joyce Banda, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Winnie Byanyima, and influential people such as American actress Gillian Anderson... They emphasized that "the world still remembers with horror and shame that it took 10 years and 12 million lives before the original version" of the first antiretroviral drug was made available worldwide.

According to UNAIDS, one life is lost every minute to AIDS. 9.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV but do not have access to treatment. HIV continues to affect key populations more than the general population. The appeal in the letter argues that if all people living with AIDS worldwide (39 million in 2022) have access to Lenacapavir, then the public health threat from this disease can be ended by 2030.

French scientist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who co-discovered the HIV virus, said that “inequality, not science, is the biggest barrier to fighting AIDS.” In a statement on behalf of the scientists who paved the way for the new drug, she pleaded: “I beg Gilead to eliminate much of this inequality and take a giant step towards ending the AIDS epidemic.”

In response to the open letter, Gilead said it is in talks with governments and organizations about ways to expand access to HIV treatment. The signatories of the letter say that Lenacapavir could be a “real game changer” in the fight against HIV. The world can still end AIDS by 2030, but the world’s deadliest pandemic can only be stopped if the opportunity is seized. And, some will be remembered as “those who stopped the world’s deadliest pandemic.”

KHANH HUNG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/ke-thay-doi-cuoc-choi-trong-cuoc-chien-chong-hiv-post742483.html