UN Presses Gilead to Open Drug Patents for AIDS, Marking a Historic Achievement

(Geneva, 22nd) The Executive Director of the United Nations AIDS Program (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima, told AFP that if the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Gilead makes its revolutionary new anti-AIDS drug available, the AIDS pandemic could be brought to an end.

The paper reported that Gilead announced last Saturday, local time, that the interim analysis results of the key Phase 3 Objective 1 trial showed that its HIV-1 capsid inhibitor, Lenacapavir, demonstrated 100% effectiveness in preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in women. This effect was superior to Gilead's existing oral anti-HIV drug, Truvada.

Gilead stated that this was the first Phase 3 trial to show HIV prevention without any patients becoming infected.

Byanyima urged Gilead to "make history" by allowing generic drugmakers to produce Lenacapavir, an antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV patients that only needs to be injected every six months.

She called on Gilead to include Lenacapavir in the United Nations-backed International Medicines Patent Pool so that cheaper generic versions of the drug could be sold in middle- and low-income countries.

Byanyima noted that while there would be financial gains from developing Lenacapavir, the company's reputation as having conquered the AIDS pandemic would be far greater.

Lenacapavir is priced at RM187,000 per year.

"Gilead has an opportunity to bring us closer to ending AIDS as a public health threat," Byanyima told AFP at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva. "Gilead has an opportunity to save the world, literally, from a pandemic."

She added, "For example, they (Gilead) could be a company that wins the Nobel Prize. The reward is not just money; it's also recognition... think about how great that would be."

Lenacapavir was approved for the treatment of HIV in the United States and the European Union in 2022. In the United States, it costs about US,000 (RM187,300) per year.

It also needs to be injected only once every six months, which can address the compliance issue associated with this type of drug. Additionally, this dosing schedule can help alleviate stigma and discrimination that some individuals might face when taking or storing such medication.