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Pharmaceutical corporation ViiV must make ground-breaking HIV prevention injection affordable and available

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MSF calls on ViiV to urgently dismantle barriers to access for long-acting cabotegravir

Geneva, 29 November 2022 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on pharmaceutical corporation ViiV to urgently dismantle the barriers hindering broad access to the most effective form of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that exists, long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA), which could turn the tide against new HIV infections globally. CAB-LA is administered as an injection every two months and has shown to be more effective than once-daily oral PrEP pills, but ViiV is not making the drug affordable or available in places where it is urgently needed. Around 1.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2021, which is far from the global target of reducing new annual infections to 370,000 by 2025, and affordable access to CAB-LA could play a major role in reducing infections and saving more lives.

“The rollout of long-acting injectable cabotegravir would be hugely beneficial for reducing new HIV infections for people at risk and break the cycle of transmission particularly in places where HIV prevalence is high,” said Dr Mounia Amrani, Medical Team Leader with MSF Southern Africa. “The implementation of daily PrEP programs in Africa that have been so far hindered by inconsistent visit attendance and low adherence can be greatly overcome by the use of CAB-LA which is more discreet and easier for people to stick to than the daily preventative pill. ViiV must lower and publish the price of this transformative drug and ensure that it is available and registered everywhere: no corporation should be prioritising profits over preventing HIV.”

ViiV’s still prohibitive so-called “access price” will likely hinder government treatment programmes from being able to roll out CAB-LA for use at the scale needed. ViiV have not been transparent about the “access-price” and have not published it themselves. However, according to publicly available information, ViiV’s “access price” will be between US$240-276 per person per year which is 12 times higher than what the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) estimates a generic price could be, namely less than $20 per year. Today’s oral HIV PrEP pills are priced at $40 for one year. ViiV should publicly announce its “access price” and ensure that it is comparable to the current price of oral PrEP in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) so that governments and treatment providers can accelerate rollout of this lifesaving intervention.

In December 2021, CAB-LA’s registration was approved for the prevention of HIV infection by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and was then approved in August 2022 in Australia, followed by Zimbabwe and Uganda. While there are some pending submissions for CAB-LA registration, which governments must prioritise for approval, ViiV should do more to register CAB-LA globally as it is still not available in almost every country in the world, preventing millions of people from being able to benefit from it. This is particularly concerning, as ViiV will be the only supplier of CAB-LA until generic versions are developed, registered and commercially available, which will take at least four to five years following the announcement of a voluntary license agreement between ViiV and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) in July 2022. This agreement happened after civil society raised grave concerns about ViiV’s lackadaisical approach to making CAB-LA available.

Moreover, CAB-LA is currently produced in only one manufacturing site in the UK. Until generics are registered and available, ViiV should ensure sufficient supply of CAB-LA and should be transparent about its manufacturing capacity. And, in order to mitigate the risk of shortages and stockouts should there be any issues at the current site, ViiV should ensure that a second manufacturing site can produce CAB-LA.

In addition to barriers of price, registration, and possibly supply, ViiV currently donates CAB-LA in some low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) under its own special program, based on approval by the corporation of research protocols submitted by the organisations wishing to use the drug for HIV PrEP. MSF also wants to start using CAB-LA for HIV PrEP in several pilot projects and negotiated around this requirement, and urges ViiV to cease this requirement in general to allow normal procurement, importation and use as per World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, and for independent research.

“CAB-LA could significantly reduce new HIV infections globally, so it is beyond frustrating that ViiV is not doing more to get this drug to the places where it is needed most,” said Jessica Burry, HIV/HCV Pharmacist with MSF’s Access Campaign. “MSF has been able to negotiate out of many of ViiV’s cumbersome constraints, but we should not be the exception here. ViiV should urgently prioritise increasing access to CAB-LA by reducing and publishing its price, ensuring sufficient supply until generics are available, and getting rid of unwieldy requirements for governments and others who want to use this ground-breaking HIV PrEP.”

In addition to the steps that ViiV should take to increase access to CAB-LA, governments should act fast to approve CAB-LA in-country, include it in national HIV guidelines and accelerate its rollout to prevent HIV transmission.

For interviews, please contact Morag McKenzie at Morag.mckenzie@berlin.msf.org or +49 172 525 1319 (also on WhatsApp).

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.

The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.

Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.

“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”

The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.

A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.

Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.

“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.

Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.

The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.

“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.

Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.

The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.

“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.

Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.

Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.

A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast!

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