PrEP, Truvada, and Gilead

Who sets the price of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV in the UK, asks Andrew Jack Truvada is a fixed dose combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine produced by the US drug company Gilead. It has been licensed for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults for more than a decade. Recent studies have shown it also effective in “treatment as prevention” or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among people at high risk. The US Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada for PrEP in 2012.1 The World Health Organization recommended it in 2014.2 It is already reimbursed in France and included in several national strategies.3 PROUD, a clinical trial conducted in England and published in 2015, showed that it reduced HIV infection by 86%, with modest side effects.4 No other antiretrovirals have been studied in such detail for their potential use in PrEP. …