Twice-yearly HIV prevention shot rolls out in African countries

A twice-yearly HIV prevention injection is being rolled out in countries including South Africa, Kenya and Zambia. In a 2024 trial involving more than 2,000 young women in South Africa and Uganda, none of the participants who received the drug, lenacapavir, contracted HIV.

The World Health Organization has recommended the medicine as an additional prevention option. Unlike daily prevention pills, it offers six months of protection per injection. That could be especially valuable for people displaced by conflict or disaster who may struggle to take medicine consistently.

Developer Gilead Sciences is supplying its version at no profit to programmes supported by the Global Fund and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It has also licensed six manufacturers to make lower-cost generic versions. These are expected to cost about $40 per person annually, with large-scale rollout anticipated in 2027.

Access remains uneven. Doctors Without Borders says at least 26 middle-income countries are excluded from the generic licensing agreement. A separate agreement with the Pan American Health Organization creates a route to Gilead’s drug for 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries outside that licence, but does not give them automatic access to cheaper generics.