Kampala Key, Vulnerable and Priority Populations (KVP) News

Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical that makes Truvada, the only FDA-approved drug for PrEP, is having a great week in the public relations department. First, Gilead announced they were  surrendering their patent for Truvada a year early , and now Federal officials have announced that Gilead  will donate enough Truvada for 200,000 people  in the United States. Don’t fall for this. Gilead is engaged in a brilliantly self-serving marketing ploy and dressing it up like charity. Their deeply entrenched ownership of our governmental and community HIV response is as clear as ever. This ownership isn’t absolute; there are activists and national community leaders who see this ploy for what it is.  #PrEP4All has met the news with great skepticism , and national non-profit leaders, who depend upon Gilead funding, have damned the announcement with faint praise or silence. Here are five reasons why Gilead is simply building profits and ignoring pleas to do some real good....

By Donald G. McNeill Jr.  May 9, 2019  The New York Times Full article available at:  https://www.nytimes.com/ 2019/05/09/health/gilead- truvada-hiv-aids.html? register=email&auth=register- email Gilead Sciences, maker of Truvada, the only drug approved to prevent infection with H.I.V., will donate enough of the drug to supply 200,000 patients annually for up to 11 years, federal health officials announced on Thursday.  Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said the donation came about “as a result of discussions between the Trump administration and Gilead.” The drug is taken once daily to prevent infection with H.I.V., a strategy called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. An estimated one million Americans are at risk for infection and should be taking the pills, but only about 270,000 are doing so.  H.I.V. activists and experts had mixed reactions to the news. While some felt the donation was a good start, they sa...