Help increase access to crucial HIV medicine

Dear TBFighters,

Did you know that TB is the leading cause of death for people with HIV? In 2019, TB accounted for an estimated 30% of all AIDS-related deaths worldwide. And, according to the 2020 Global TB Report, people living with HIV are 18 times more likely to develop active TB disease than people without HIV.

Fighting TB and HIV go hand in hand, which is why we thought it was important to share some news from the HIV/AIDS world that isn’t sitting quite right with us.

The pharmaceutical company Gilead is currently refusing to sell their game-changing HIV medication called Lenacapavir to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières / MSF).

Lenacapavir (LEN) is a new injectable drug made by Gilead Sciences that is highly effective at both treating and preventing HIV. What makes it especially remarkable is that (after an initial short pill regimen) only two doses are required per patient per year, unlike the more common oral medications that must be taken daily and are therefore much harder to adhere to and more vulnerable to supply chain and acquisition problems.

Gilead recently struck a deal with The Global Fund to provide LEN for 3 million people by 2028. This deal is incredible and will save a lot of lives. But it also leaves out many lower and middle income countries where HIV is on the rise and tuberculosis is more prevalent. To fill that gap, Doctors Without Borders tried to buy Lenacapavir from Gilead directly, but Gilead refused.

Gilead’s refusal to sell Lenacapavir directly to MSF goes against their mission of “creating a healthier world for all people”. Access to scientific advancement is a human right, and impoverished communities should not be denied access to new medicine by virtue of their impoverishment.

We’re joining our friends at MSF in calling on Gilead to increase access to this important drug.

To kick off this campaign, we are going to join MSF on Wednesday, May 13th at 12pm ET and Thursday, May 14th at 5pm ET for an information session to learn more about the drug and what we can do.

We have been successful in increasing access to drugs before. We helped increase access to bedaquilline—preventing patent renewals which would have blocked cheaper generics from coming onto the market—and we can do the same here!

Keep an eye out for more information and actions you can take coming soon.

In TBFighting and HIVFighting,
TBFighters