Doctors Without Borders is calling for a major price cut for lenacapavir, a long‑acting HIV prevention injection, demanding a price near $40 per person per year and broad access to low‑cost generics. MSF says Gilead currently lists a year’s supply at roughly $28,000 in the US — a level unaffordable for many low‑ and middle‑income health systems. Lenacapavir, given twice yearly, offers an alternative to daily PrEP, but prevention efforts are being squeezed by declining international health funding.
MSF Urges Drastic Price Cut for Long‑Acting HIV Prevention Drug Ahead of International AIDS Conference
FILE PHOTO - At the Berliner aids-hilfe e.V., a man reaches for an information brochure on HIV transmission. World AIDS Day is observed annually on December 1. (is associated with: «MSF calls for key HIV prevention drug to be made affordable») Elisa Schu/dpa
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for a steep reduction in the cost of lenacapavir, a long‑acting HIV prevention medicine, as delegates gather for the International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro.
"No one should be excluded from HIV prevention simply because a medicine is being kept artificially expensive," said Melissa Scharwey, a global health expert at MSF. The organization is demanding a price of roughly $40 per person per year for lenacapavir and is urging the widespread production of affordable generic versions.
MSF highlights that US pharmaceutical company Gilead currently lists a year’s supply of lenacapavir at about $28,000 in the United States — a price that applies to treatment for people living with HIV rather than to its use as prevention. MSF argues that this list price places the drug far beyond the reach of many health systems in low‑ and middle‑income countries.
For prevention, lenacapavir is administered by injection twice a year, offering an alternative to daily oral pre‑exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) tablets. Advocates say the long‑acting regimen could improve adherence and expand prevention options, particularly where daily dosing is challenging.
Epidemic Context and Funding Worries
The German AIDS Action Alliance estimates roughly 1.2 million new HIV infections occur worldwide each year, while about 570,000 people die annually from AIDS‑related illnesses. For the first time, the alliance reports that more than half of new HIV infections now occur outside sub‑Saharan Africa.
Those prevention and treatment efforts face growing pressure as international health funding has fallen sharply in recent years, raising concerns that lifesaving interventions will remain out of reach without urgent policy and pricing changes.
Conference note: The International AIDS Conference, organized by the International AIDS Society, opened in Rio de Janeiro and runs until Friday.
Help us improve.
