MSF demands $40 per-person price for HIV prevention injection as World AIDS Conference opens in Rio

Opening demand on the first day

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) used the opening of the World AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro to press for a drastic price cut on Lenacapavir, an injectable drug that can prevent HIV infection with two shots a year. Melissa Scharwey, the organisation's global health expert, called the current pricing artificial and unacceptable.

No one should be excluded from HIV prevention just because a medication is kept artificially expensive.

MSF wants a price of about $40 per person per year, together with broad licensing that allows the production of cheaper generics.

The price gap

According to MSF, the US pharmaceutical company Gilead currently charges $28,000 for a year's supply of Lenacapavir, administered as two injections. That figure applies to the treatment of already HIV-infected people in the United States, not to preventive use, but MSF argues it is still indicative of costs that health systems in low- and middle-income countries cannot bear.

The drug's advantage is its dosing schedule: twice-yearly injections replace daily pre-exposure prophylaxis pills. MSF notes that a daily pill regimen is hard to sustain for people living in conflict zones, refugee camps and remote rural areas.

The global HIV picture

Every year around 1.2 million people become newly infected with HIV, according to the AIDS action alliance, and roughly 570,000 die from AIDS-related causes. For the first time more than half of new infections now occur outside sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time the global HIV response is under pressure from a sharp decline in international health financing.

What lies ahead in Rio

The World AIDS Conference runs from 26 to 31 July 2026. Scientists, politicians, companies, activists and patient representatives are meeting to discuss the future of the global HIV fight. Access to Lenacapavir is one of the central topics of the gathering.