This price was based on production volumes equal to treating 10 million people.
If the drug was given to people at high risk of contracting HIV — such as gay or bisexual men, sex workers, prisoners or notably young women in Africa — it could “basically shut down HIV transmission,” Hill emphasised.
“We could actually control the epidemic.”
There were 1.3 million new HIV infections last year, while 39 million people are living with the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
“OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE THE WORLD”
To estimate the cost, the researchers studied shipments of raw materials of the drug, and spoke to large generic manufacturers in China and India that already make its “building blocks,” Hill said.
The international team of researchers has been proven right about similar estimates in the past, he added.
A decade ago, the team said that the cost of making Gilead’s hepatitis C drug — then priced at US$84,000 a patient – could plummet to US$100 if generics were allowed.
“Now it costs just under US$40 to cure Hepatitis C,” Hill said.
The new research was announced a day after UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima called on Gilead to “make history” by opening up Lenacapavir to the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which would allow generics to be sold under licence in low- and middle-income nations.
“Gilead has an opportunity to save the world,” she told AFP.
