![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MMF_2359-1-1024x683.jpg\")
Brazilian Health Minister Dr Alexandre Padilha<\/p>\n\tBrazilian Health Minister Dr Alexandre Padilha<\/p>\n
RIO DE JANEIRO \u2013 News that an antiretroviral drug injected twice a year had prevented almost all HIV infection in trials electrified the HIV sector two years ago \u2013 but access to Gilead\u2019s lenacapavir has been slow, particularly for countries in Latin America.<\/p>\n
Brazil, which faces significant HIV transmission in certain groups, has been routinely excluded from HIV voluntary licensing deals offered by pharmaceutical companies \u2013 particularly for long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)<\/p>\n
Brazilian Health Minister Dr Alexandre Padilha told the International AIDS Conference being hosted in his country that negotiations with Gilead had run aground as the company wanted a price 10 times higher than that being paid by Indonesia and Thailand.<\/p>\n
\u201cInnovation without access is injustice,\u201d said Padilha at the conference opening.<\/p>\n
Instead of pursuing lenacapavir, his country has opted to use ViiV\u2019s cabotegravir, injected every second month, to bolster its PrEP programme as the company has offered Brazil \u201can acceptable price\u201d, Padilha added.<\/p>\n
ViiV and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) signed a voluntary licensing agreement<\/a> to enable generic manufacturers to make generic versions of long-acting cabotegravir for PrEP for 90 countries \u2013 but excluding most Latin American countries.<\/p>\n Long-acting antiretroviral medicine to prevent HIV offers the biggest global opportunity to control the virus that has long evaded a vaccine.<\/p>\n Almost 830,000 Brazilians living with HIV, but Brazil is regarded as an upper-middle-income country and is is routinely excluded from lower prices and affordable generics.<\/p>\n HIV cases continue to increase in some key populations, showing the urgency of their leading role in demanding affordable access to injectable PrEP across South America.<\/p>\n Pressure on Gilead Last month, M\u00e9decins sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) launched a campaign<\/a> to demand that the US-based Gilead \u201cimmediately make the highly effective HIV<\/a> prevention medicine lenacapavir<\/a> more widely available across the globe\u201d.<\/p>\n The six-monthly injection is particularly important for groups most at risk of HIV, including \u201cmen who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and incarcerated people, as well as those in conflict and other fragile humanitarian contexts\u201d, said MSF.<\/p>\n While Gilead signed voluntary licensing deals in October 2024 with six pharmaceutical manufacturers to make and sell generic lenacapavir, it sells the medicine for $28,000 a year in the US.<\/p>\n Gilead\u2019s Jared Baeten told a media briefing on Tuesday that the medicine was being rolled out in 10 African countries and that 600,000 people would be using lenacapavir by the end of this year.<\/p>\n However, activists from Brazil, Argentina and Peru have staged several protests against Gilead at the AIDS conference, pointing out that their countries have been part of the clinical trial of lenacapavir and should have access to the product.<\/p>\n Baeten said all trial participants had access to lenacapavir, and this would only stop once they could access it in their countries.<\/p>\n Merck takes a different approach Merck\/ MSD, which is currently testing a monthly pill, alimatravir<\/a>, as PrEP, has taken an innovative approach to ensure access to its yet-to-be-proven medicine.<\/p>\n Last week, it announced<\/a> that it had granted voluntary licenses to seven generic companies \u2013 three in sub-Saharan Africa and four in India \u2013 to produce the medicine for 129 low- and middle-income countries.<\/p>\n \u201cThe royalty-free agreements with these companies cover both the public and private sectors and will enable supply of generic alimatravir in 129 LMICs that account for a substantial majority of new HIV diagnoses globally,\u201d the company announced.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Cilead-protest-953x1024.jpg\")
Gilead is under pressure to ensure countries that participated in the trial of lenacapavir get access to it at a fair price.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Eliav-Barr-1018x1024.jpg\")
Merck\/ MSD\u2019s Eliav Barr.<\/p>\n