No more excuses: the NHS must fund the drug that stops people getting HIV

No more excuses: the NHS must fund the drug that stops people getting HIV | Timothy Hildebrandt Our research shows that fears of a public outcry over PrEP are fuelled by negative media coverage, not facts.

In a ruling last week, the high court overturned the drug patent extension for Truvada, a highly effective anti-HIV drug, opening the door for generic versions of the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug to be made available in the UK at a fraction of the cost. The hope of many sexual health campaigners is that this lower price will compel NHS England to provide full access to the drug.

Despite large studies in the UK and worldwide that have demonstrated its effectiveness in preventing HIV and research showing how access to it could save billions of pounds in lifetime treatment costs for those newly infected with HIV, in June 2016 the NHS decided it would not fund the drug. While the high court overturned this decision just months later, NHS England continued to drag its feet. Claiming that issues around large-scale PrEP implementation were not sufficiently understood, another trial – involving 10,000 individuals over three years – was launched . The Guardian