Gilead to give up Truvada exclusivity and donate drug to some in US
BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2173 (Published 10 May 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;365:l2173- Owen Dyer
- Montreal
Gilead Sciences, the maker of Truvada, will donate enough of the drug to provide pre-exposure HIV prophylaxis (PrEP) to 200 000 people in the US, about a fifth of the population who need it, for at least five years.
Although a year’s supply of Truvada (emtricitabine with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) costs around $60 to make and is sold in some countries for about $650, in the US it carries a price tag of about $20 000 (£15 400; €17 800). This has been the biggest obstacle to providing PrEP to the estimated 1.1 million people at elevated risk.
The company’s Truvada donation came a day after it said that a generic version of the $3bn a year blockbuster drug will be marketed by Teva Pharmaceutical from 30 September 2020, a year earlier than expected.
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