“It requires a good healthy demand to ensure that it is worth its while for each of the generic companies,” says Bekker. “We all hope that governments (in Africa south of the Sahara) will write the generic product in their budgets for the future, but the reality is that we have in the meantime rely on donor financing. Even my country South Africa, which has a good GDP and finances 80 percent of its HIV reaction, already buys antirrovirals for 6 million people annually. I would imagine that it will take a few years in order to be able to mobilize the money for Lenacapavir. “
Pepper now focuses mainly on the treatment of existing patients, at the expense of prevention, clinicians such as Nomathemba Chandiwana, a medical scientist at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in South Africa Heritage, something that is significant in the African continent and also significant effects on the public Health will have.
Chandiwana spoke in the NCD Alliance Forum in Kigali in Kigali last week that the consequences of new infections are not only related to HIV itself. Studies are increasingly showing that people who live with long-term HIV infections even people who are controlled by anti-retroviral treatment have a higher risk of developing metabolic conditions such as hypertension, obesity and type 2 Africa south of the Sahara. “HIV itself disrupts her metabolism, just like many antiretrovirals,” says Chandiwana. “We see the same chronic diseases in people who live with HIV as in the general population, but in an earlier age and in an accelerated way.”
For this reason, there is also a new generation of HIV treatments, and a concept was to use Lenacapavir as the basis for future combination therapies for those with the virus. It was not only hopefully hoped that this could lead to treatment protocols in which no HIV-infected people had to take medication every day.
“Different ideas were outdated,” says Bekker. “Could you combine the two-month cabotegravir with a six Monther Lenacapavir injection (as a form of viral oppression) so that you would only get treatment six times a year, and everything could be injectable? There is a weekly antiretroviral pill in the works, and could you combine this with a six Montis injectable injectable? This could be very liberating for people, as they tell us all the time, how stigmatized it is to have to take daily medication. “
Many of these studies are now doubtful, as Bekker says that they are financed by the US resources. “It’s not just Pepper; We are also worried that restrictions for other types of research agents such as the National Institutes of Health are determined, ”she says. “It will only be more difficult to be innovative and promote progress.”
According to Ngure, there is still hope that other donors who can support the global fund in the procurement of Lenacapavir, while Bekker says they say new options for financing HIV prevention and research by European agencies and possibly donor financing Sources in Scandinavia, donor financing, examined, from sources in Scandinavia, Japan and Australia. At the same time, she believes that the events of the last month have illustrated that African countries must be able to finance more preventive efforts.
“Somehow Africa has to appear and contribute to the fight,” she says. “I think that’s the big question. How much we can contribute to countries on this continent that were not necessarily able to cover a large amount of research and development, but this must be necessary in the future. “
At the same time, she is afraid that the unique opportunity of Lenacapavir could be lost without the same resources from the USA.
“It is incredible that this happened, just like we had the breakthrough,” she says. “I think this will give us back many years and ultimately cost a lot more for public health expenditure. Because if we can ultimately control this epidemic faster, it will save the planet more money in the long run. “
