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Pharmaceutical company urged to share new 'breakthrough' HIV drug
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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More than 300 politicians, health experts and celebrities have called on US drug company Gilead to allow the production of cheap, generic versions of a promising new HIV drug so it can reach people in developing countries who are hardest hit by the deadly disease.
The drug lenacopavir could be a "real breakthrough" in the fight against HIV, according to an open letter to Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day signed by a number of former world leaders, AIDS groups, activists, actors and others.
Lenacopavir, which was approved for use in the United States and the European Union in 2022, only needs to be administered twice a year, making it particularly suitable for people typically "excluded from high-quality health care," the open letter said.
"We call on Gilead to ensure that people living with or at risk of HIV in the Global South have access to this innovative drug at the same time as those in the Global North," the letter's authors added.
The signatories called on Gilead to license the drug through the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which would allow cheaper generic versions to be produced.
Two-thirds of the 39 million people living with HIV in 2022 were in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Africa also accounted for 380,000 of the 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide that year, WHO data showed.
'Horror and shame' The letter said "the world now remembers with horror and shame that it took 10 years and 12 million lives lost before generic versions of the first antiretroviral drugs became available worldwide."
"This innovation could help end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 - but only if everyone who can benefit from it can access it."
Because it requires only two injections a year, the drug could be particularly important for those who face stigma when treating HIV, including young women, LGBTQ+ people, sex workers and people who use drugs, the letter says.
Signatories to the letter include former heads of state, including former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Malawian President Joyce Banda.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima and other humanitarians also signed the letter, as did actors including Gillian Anderson, Stephen Fry, Sharon Stone and Alan Cummings.
Another signatory, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the French scientist who discovered the HIV virus, lamented that "it is not science but inequality that is the greatest obstacle in the fight against AIDS."
On behalf of the scientists who paved the way for such new drugs, "I urge Gilead to eliminate much of this disparity and take a monumental step toward ending the AIDS pandemic," she said in a statement.
Lenacopavir, sold under the brand name Sunlenca, has shown the ability to reduce "viral load in patients with infections resistant to other treatments," according to the European Medicines Agency.