Posted by Michael Wonder on 10 Mar 2020
New brand-name HIV prevention pill not worth the added cost
10 March 2020 - A cheaper HIV prevention pill is going on sale soon in the U.S., but the price drop won’t help as many people if doctors instead prescribe a newer, more expensive brand-name drug, experts say.
HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a cocktail of drugs combined in a single pill taken once a day, can reduce the risk of HIV infections from sex or injected drug use by up to 99%, researchers note in the Annals of Internal Medicine. High costs, however, keep many patients who need PrEP from taking it.
A new generic version of Truvada, a PrEP cocktail pill whose patent is expiring, is expected to cost about $8,300 a year, roughly half the current price of Truvada, researchers estimate.
