NHS England to reconsider PrEP stance following threat of legal action
By Will Stroude
NHS England has announced it will reconsider whether it is able to commission HIV-preventing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs, following threats of legal action from the National AIDS Trust.
NHS England revealed last month that it would not fund wide-scale roll-out of the drugs – despite the findings of UK study which showed the drug Truvada was “highly effective” in reducing the spread of HIV – because local authorities are responsible for HIV prevention services.
HIV charities were quick to express their “shock and disbelief” at the decision, at a time when HIV transmission rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) are continuing to rise – and last week the National AIDS Trust (NAT) began legal action against the public body.
Yesterday, the charity received a response from NHS England, stating that it “will carefully consider its position on commissioning PrEP in light of [NAT’s] representations”.
NHS England will now meet in May to decide whether or not to include PrEP in its remit. Should this occur, it will be down to the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) to decided whether it is comissioned on the NHS for 2016/17 – at a meeting set to take place in June.
Deborah Gold, Chief Executive, NAT, said: “We welcome this change of mind from NHS England. NHS England had previously told us that it was impossible for them to reconsider their decision. Faced with legal action, they have now changed their mind. We trust that NHS England, when it re-evaluates its position, will come back with a resounding yes.
“PrEP is one of the most exciting prevention options to emerge since the HIV epidemic began and offers the prospect of real success in combatting this virus. To deny the proper process to decide whether to commission PrEP, when 17 people are being diagnosed with HIV every day, is not only morally wrong but legally wrong also.”
Truvada was approved for use in the USA in 2012, and PrEP medication has since been approved in France, Canada, Israel, and Kenya.
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