By MARIA CHENG and MARIA VERZA
MEXICO CITY (AP) — It’s been known as the closest the world has ever come to a vaccine in opposition to the AIDS virus.
The twice-yearly shot was 100% efficient in stopping HIV infections in a examine of ladies, and outcomes revealed Wednesday present it labored almost as effectively in males.
Drugmaker Gilead mentioned it can enable low cost, generic variations to be bought in 120 poor international locations with excessive HIV charges — principally in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. But it surely has excluded almost all of Latin America, the place charges are far decrease however rising, sparking concern the world is lacking a crucial alternative to cease the illness.
“This is so far superior to any other prevention method we have, that it’s unprecedented,” mentioned Winnie Byanyima, government director of UNAIDS. She credited Gilead for growing the drug, however mentioned the world’s skill to cease AIDS hinges on its use in at-risk international locations.
In a report issued to mark World AIDS Day on Sunday, UNAIDS mentioned that the variety of AIDS demise final 12 months — an estimated 630,000 — was at its lowest since peaking in 2004, suggesting the world is now at “a historic crossroads” and has an opportunity to finish the epidemic.
The drug known as lenacapavir is already bought below the model title Sunlenca to deal with HIV infections within the U.S., Canada, Europe and elsewhere. The corporate plans to hunt authorization quickly for the drug for use for HIV prevention.
Whereas there are different methods to protect in opposition to an infection, like condoms, every day drugs, vaginal rings and bi-monthly photographs, specialists say the Gilead twice-yearly photographs can be significantly helpful for marginalized individuals usually petrified of in search of care, together with homosexual males, intercourse staff and younger girls.
“It would be a miracle for these groups because it means they just have to show up twice a year at a clinic and then they’re protected,” mentioned UNAIDS’ Byanyima.
Such was the case for Luis Ruvalcaba, a 32-year-old man in Guadalajara, Mexico, who participated within the newest revealed examine. He mentioned he was afraid to ask for the every day prevention drugs offered by the federal government, fearing he can be discriminated in opposition to as a homosexual man. As a result of he took half within the examine, he’ll proceed to obtain the photographs for at the very least one other 12 months.
“In Latin American countries, there is still a lot of stigma, patients are ashamed to ask for the pills,” mentioned Dr. Alma Minerva Pérez, who recruited and enrolled a dozen examine volunteers at a personal analysis middle in Guadalajara.
How extensively out there the photographs will likely be in Mexico via the nation’s well being care system isn’t but identified. Well being officers declined to touch upon any plans to purchase them for its residents; every day drugs to forestall HIV have been made freely out there by way of the nation’s public well being system in 2021.
“If the possibility of using generics has opened, I have faith that Mexico can join,” mentioned Pérez.
Byanyima mentioned different international locations in addition to Mexico that took half within the analysis have been additionally excluded from the generics deal, together with Brazil, Peru and Argentina. “To now deny them that drug is unconscionable.” she mentioned.
In an announcement, Gilead mentioned it has “an ongoing commitment to helping enable access to HIV prevention and treatment options where the need is the greatest.” Among the many 120 international locations eligible for generic model are 18 principally African international locations that comprise 70% of the world’s HIV burden.
The drugmaker mentioned additionally it is engaged on establishing “fast, efficient pathways to reach all people who need or want lenacapavir for HIV prevention.”
On Thursday, 15 advocacy teams in Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Guatemala and Colombia wrote to Gilead, asking for the generic model to be made out there in Latin America, citing the “alarming” inequity in entry to new HIV prevention instruments whereas an infection charges have been rising.
Whereas international locations together with Norway, France, Spain and the U.S. have paid greater than $40,000 per 12 months for Sunlenca, specialists have calculated it could possibly be produced for as little as $40 per remedy as soon as generic manufacturing expands to cowl 10 million individuals.
Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the International Well being Institute at Duke College, mentioned it will likely be enormously helpful to have the Gilead photographs out there within the hardest-hit international locations in Africa and Asia. However he mentioned the rising HIV charges amongst teams together with homosexual males and transgender populations constituted “a public health emergency” in Latin America.
Hannya Danielle Torres, a 30-year-old trans lady and artist who was additionally within the examine in Mexico, mentioned she hoped the federal government would discover a method to offer the photographs. “Mexico may have some of the richest people in the world but it also has some of the most vulnerable people living in extreme poverty and violence,” Torres mentioned.
One other drugmaker, Viiv Healthcare, additionally ignored most of Latin America when it allowed generics of its HIV prevention shot in about 90 international locations. Offered as Apretude, the bi-monthly photographs are about 80% to 90% efficient in stopping HIV. They value about $1,500 a 12 months in middle-income international locations, past what most can afford to pay.
Asia Russell, government director of the advocacy group Well being Hole, mentioned that with greater than 1 million new HIV infections globally yearly, established prevention strategies should not sufficient. She urged international locations like Brazil and Mexico to situation “compulsory licenses,” a mechanism the place international locations droop patents in a well being disaster.
It’s a method some international locations embraced for earlier HIV therapies, together with within the late Nineteen Nineties and 2000s when AIDS medicine have been first found. Extra just lately, Colombia issued its first-ever obligatory license for the important thing HIV remedy Tivicay in April, with out permission from its drugmaker, Viiv.
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, an AIDS skilled at South Africa’s College of KwaZulu-Natal, mentioned he had by no means seen a drug that gave the impression to be as efficient because the Gilead shot in stopping HIV.
“The missing piece in the puzzle now is how we get it to everyone who needs it,” he mentioned.
Cheng reported from London.
The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives assist from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Instructional Media Group. The AP is solely liable for all content material.
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