ACT UP London protest HIV prevention drug maker to demand global access

The HIV/AIDS activist group ACT UP London has hosted a protest outside a pharmaceutical company today (24 September) that produces a highly effective injectable HIV prevention drug to demand that they make the treatment accessible to all.

The London faction of ACT UP, which stands for AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, gathered outside of Gilead, the makers of the drug, lenacapavir, with a banner that read “Gilead Stop Your Delay: Generic Lenacapavir Now!”

Protestors also showed up with giant syringes and submitted a letter to Gilead laying out their demands, which included making the drug affordable and available to low and middle income countries.

“Lenacapavir PrEP could benefit tens of millions of people at high risk of infection” – The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Lenacapavir, also known under the brand name as Sunlenca, is a twice-yearly injectable form of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) that is extremely effective at preventing the transmission of HIV.

Information shared by Gilead earlier this year highlighted how during clinical trials the drug proved 100% effective when preventing HIV transmission for cisgender women and 96% effective for men, transgender men, transgender women and non-binary individuals.

According to Gilead, the drug is superior to daily oral medications used to prevent HIV transmissions such as Truvada.

Pointing to an article in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, ACT UP London noted that while lenacapavir costs less than $100 to make per person, per year, Gilead has priced the medication at over $40,000 per person, per year.

“Six-monthly lenacapavir PrEP could benefit tens of millions of people at high risk of infection,” note the authors of the article in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Despite this, ACT UP London said, Gilead had yet to announce any plans to license the medication with organisations such as the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which would help bring the price down.

“If this licence included all low- and middle-income countries it would allow other manufacturers to produce the drug, helping bring the price down through generic competition whilst also enabling greater supply to meet demand and ultimately help to end new HIV transmissions,” ACT UP London said in a press release.

During the protest, activists from ACT UP London rang a bell every 24 seconds to highlight how a new person acquires HIV every 24 seconds.

While in 2023 global HIV transmissions were down 39% from 2010, according to UNAIDS, ACT UP London noted that transmissions in Latin America had actually increased 9% between 2010 to 2023.

“Living with HIV+ I am proud to stand on the shoulders of legends in the HIV activist movement” – Dan Glass, ACT UP London

In a statement, Andria Mordaunt of the advocacy project the John Mordaunt Trust, said: “Friends and family are still dying with AIDS all over the world, including England. I am an AIDS Widow, who never really recovered from losing my life partner, and that is true for thousands of us.”

“To think there is now a medicine that could prevent all that suffering, and it is so overpriced, feels like big pharma’s greed is incapable of empathy or compassion. Wtaf?!” she added.

Dan Glass, the author of the books United Queerdom and Queer Footprints and a member of ACT UP London, said: “Who’s afraid of a world without HIV and AIDS? Gilead are! Because if we finally manage to end AIDS they won’t make millions of profit anymore! Living with HIV+ I am proud to stand on the shoulders of legends in the HIV activist movement.”

Continuing, he said: “AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) have been fighting tooth and nail for the lowering of the price of life-saving antiretrovirals, PrEP, and access to medication for all since the beginning of the pandemic and we won’t stop until it is over!”