In South Africa, a preventive injection against HIV already seduces the authorities
Medicine bottles next to blood samples.
Getty Images/Science Photo Libra - DIGICOMPHOTO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
PrEP (for pre-exposure prophylaxis), a drug offered to people at risk to protect them from HIV, already existed in tablet form.
But, now, an injectable version (CAB-LA) has been developed by an English laboratory.
In South Africa, drug regulatory authorities have already approved its use, despite uncertainty about its future cost.
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We already knew the effects of PrEP in tablet form, which offers a protection rate of more than 90% by preventing the virus from attaching itself when it enters the body, and therefore avoiding contamination even during sexual intercourse. risk.
But, from now on, an injection based on cabotegravir, to be received every two months, would be much more effective, because more practical than a drug that you must not forget to swallow every day.
The World Health Organization (WHO) already recommends its use, which will facilitate the use of prevention, especially in countries with a high prevalence rate, while the drug is already available in the States. -United.
However, with more than 7 million South Africans infected with
HIV
, and nearly 200,000 new infections per year, Nelson Mandela's country dreams of rapidly deploying this new tool, and test projects have already been set up, particularly with young women.
If the price is right, the government could make this new prevention injection available in the country on a larger scale in six months.
Yes, but at what price ?
The financial question remains crucial.
In its current form, injection remains far too expensive.
But an agreement has been negotiated with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) organization to offer it at a reduced price in 90 low- and middle-income countries, including South Africa.
However, the final price is still unknown.
And, in the Rainbow Nation, these uncertainties are reminiscent of the fight in the 2000s to obtain affordable AIDS treatments.
To (re)listen ► Living well with HIV? Yes but not for everyone
Lise Jamieson, of the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE²RO) in Johannesburg, calculated what would be a profitable price for Pretoria: "
In the United States, the current price is around $22,000 per year, or $3,000 per injection.
This price will undoubtedly be reduced: the Medicines Patent Pool has already managed to do this with other drugs in the past,
explains Lise Jamieson at the microphone of
Claire Bargelès
of the Africa editorial staff
.
But we have built what is called an epidemiological model, to calculate at what price this injectable version must be put on the local market to be as profitable as if we increased the distribution of the oral drug.
[…] And, according to our estimates, this price should be between 9 and 14 dollars per injection, or between 60 and 100 dollars per year.
So less than 1% of the current price in the United States!
»
And the researcher concludes: "
If the drug is too expensive, no one will have the means to have access to it and this raises ethical questions: why produce a drug if you cannot provide it to the populations who have the most need ?
»
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