AIDS: what is this promising treatment received “like a vaccine” and which could cost around 36 euros ?

A very promising treatment against AIDS costing nearly 40,000 euros per person per year could drop to 40 dollars, according to several researchers' estimates.

A treatment considered very promising against AIDS, which costs some 40,000 dollars per person each year, could cost around 40 dollars in a generic version, according to an estimate revealed Tuesday by researchers at the 25th International AIDS Conference.

This antiretroviral, developed by the American giant Gilead from the lenacapavir molecule, could be a game-changer against AIDS, judge many international specialists.

It could "stop HIV transmission"

It requires only two injections per year, making it much easier to administer than daily tablets. And it is also being tested as a preventative medication (PrEP) to avoid infection, with an effectiveness of 100% according to a recent preliminary study.

This treatment, which we receive "like a vaccine", could "stop the transmission of HIV" if given to people at high risk, such as gay or bisexual people, sex workers, prisoners or women young people, particularly in Africa, Andrew Hill of the British University of Liverpool, who presented the study, told AFP.

A treatment 1,000 times cheaper

At around 40,000 US dollars per year – its current cost in various countries, such as the United States, France, Norway and Australia – lenacapavir is out of reach for most patients.

If the American giant allowed its manufacture in a generic version, this cost could drop to 40 dollars, calculated the researchers, who presented their work – not peer-reviewed – in Munich.

They based their assessment on an assumption of orders for 10 million people.

To estimate the cost of a generic version, the researchers, among other things, discussed with major generic manufacturers in China and India, already producers of "bricks"treatment, said Andrew Hill.

"Entering History"

About ten years ago, this team of researchers estimated that Gilead's hepatitis C treatment – then billed $84,000 per patient- could plummet to $100 if generics were authorized. "From now on, it costs less than 40 dollars to treat hepatitis C", slipped the scientist.< /p>

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima urged Gilead, in an interview with AFP published on Monday, to " rsquo;History" by authorizing the manufacture of generics of its antiretroviral.

Gilead, the subject of a pressure campaign by numerous personalities and NGOs, has claimed in recent months to discuss "regularly" with those involved in the fight against HIV, "including governments and NGOs", for access to treatment "to as many people as possible".

If some 30 million people living with the AIDS virus in the world benefit from antiretroviral treatment, around 10 million are deprived of it. Around 1.3 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2023.