The international organization Unitaid and the Medicines Patent Pool (or Medicines Patent Pool) have announced that they have entered into a voluntary license agreement with the ViiV Healthcare laboratory for a long-acting preventive treatment against HIV.
The agreement, announced on the eve of the 24e International AIDS Conference in Montrealrelates to patents relating to cabotegravir, an injectable form of antiretroviral drug used in the context of preventive treatment pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) for HIV-negative patients.
This drug is produced by ViiV Healthcare, a pharmaceutical company majority owned by GSK, which specializes in HIV treatment and research.
The voluntary license is a mechanism by which a laboratory gives access to some of its patents to producers of generic drugs.
Priority clienteles
The agreement will allow access to cabotegravir in least developed countries, low-income countries, lower-middle-income countries and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Unitaid said in its press release.
Selected generic manufacturers will be able to produce and supply generic versions of this drug – recently authorized by US health authorities – in a total of 90 countries, most of them in Africa.
More than 70% of new HIV cases occurred in these countries in 2020. However, although options of Oral PrEP are available in many countries, issues with treatment adherence and stigma have limited their impact in some vulnerable populations
emphasizes Unitaid.
Under these conditions, cabotegravir represents a major step forward in the prevention of HIV, as it can provide protection against the disease for two months with a single injection
commented Hervé Verhoosel, spokesperson for Unitaid, quoted in the press release.
The annual cost of this treatment in the United States is $22,000 per person, the organization, which raises funds for the diseases, said in March.
BY AFP Agency
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