Gavin Newsom expands PrEP to CA residents without a prescription
In a historic move, California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a sweeping bill that will allow residents of the state to get anti-HIV drug regimens PrEP and PEP without a prescription. The new bill expands the authority of pharmacists to dispense between a 30 and 60 day supply of the drug Truvada, which…
A Generic Version of Truvada Will Be Available by 2020
Gilead Sciences has agreed to break its patent a year earlier than anticipated. Gilead Sciences—the pharmaceutical company that holds a patent on the highly effective HIV prevention drug Trvuada, or PrEP—is releasing its hold on the drug earlier than expected, meaning a generic version of Truvada will be available as early…
Out Rep. Brian Sims Goes Public On His PrEP Use To Fight ‘Stigma’
Out Pennsylvania Representative Brian Sims, has come out publicly about his own use of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a daily pill that has proven highly effective in preventing HIV transmission. “Starting this day off smart, proactive, and in control!” Sims wrote in the Instagram post alongside a photo of his Truvada…
New Case of PrEP Failure Documented in San Francisco
Doctors have diagnosed a San Francisco man on PrEP with HIV. The case marks only the third documented occasion in the United States in which the widely-prescribed and lauded health regimen to prevent HIV infection has failed. The announcement came at IDWeek, a conference for members of the Infectious Diseases…
While England is Making PrEP Dramatically Cheaper, American Men Still Can’t Afford It
Thanks to a court ruling in the UK, a cheaper generic version of PrEP could be available in the future, but in the United States, only 4% of men who have sex with men are using the drug — and cost is a big culprit. PrEP has shown itself…
How Accessible is PReP in America, Anyway?
Health experts offer differing views on how easy (and affordable) it is to obtain the HIV-preventative drug. According to a July op-ed in The New York Times, “the major reason” why over 90% of the 1.2 million Americans who need Truvada (the brand drug used in the U.S. as PrEP),…
#BreakThePatent: How HIV activists are going after Gilead’s PrEP patent
Activists are pushing the government to “march in” and break the pharma giant’s Truvada patent. Their promise is tantalizing: end the HIV epidemic without a vaccine. But how? In an op-ed published this week in The New York Times, two prominent HIV activists and a physician argue “the solution comes in a…
The FDA just approved generic Truvada, and the implications are immense
It’s a game-changing move that’s come as something of a shock to HIV advocates: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a generic version of Gilead’s antiretroviral drug Truvada (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine). What that means as far as what the drug will cost is still up in the…