Brazil: MSF at AIDS 2026 demanding affordable access to lenacapavir everywhere
Brazil hosted clinical trials that paved the way for lenacapavir’s approval and sale, but the medicine remains widely inaccessible for people there.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is continuing to put pressure on the US pharmaceutical corporation Gilead Sciences to make the critical HIV prevention medicine lenacapavir more widely available in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Brazil. If Gilead is unwilling, governments must step in to help increase access for people worldwide.
Lenacapavir is an injectable version of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that only needs to be given twice a year and is nearly 100 percent effective in preventing HIV. It could be a gamechanger for communities affected by HIV everywhere, especially those who face stigma and additional barriers accessing health care, like men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, sex workers, and people caught in conflict or humanitarian crises — if they could access it. Instead, Gilead has priced the medicine out of reach, severely restricts its supply to certain countries like Brazil, and refuses to sell it directly to MSF for use in its medical programs.
"We’re here at AIDS 2026 with one main ask: lenacapavir must be available for no more than $40 per person per year in all low- and middle-income countries,” said Renata Reis, executive director of MSF-Brazil. “We have been running HIV prevention programs and treating people with HIV/AIDS across the globe for decades. We’ve seen firsthand what happens when medical tools like antiretroviral treatments are priced out of reach or are simply unavailable: People die needlessly, and communities suffer. We can’t let history repeat with this critical HIV prevention medicine.”
Gilead currently completely controls who can receive lenacapavir, where it’s available, and on what terms. The pharmaceutical corporation sells it for $28,000 a year per patient in the US even though it could be produced for less than $40. Some more affordable generic versions are set to become available as early as next year, but only select manufacturers will be allowed to make them, and their sale will be restricted to certain countries. Many countries — including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru — that hosted the lenacapavir clinical trials are excluded from that deal altogether.
“It is unacceptable that communities in Brazil contributed to the clinical trials that paved the way for lenacapavir’s approval and sale in countries across the world, yet people here still struggle to access this game-changing medicine,” said Antonio Flores, senior HIV and tuberculosis (TB) advisor with MSF’s Southern Africa Medical Unit. “Gilead alone should not decide who gets lenacapavir and who doesn’t.”
If Gilead continues to charge high prices for this medicine and restrict its production, governments, including Brazil’s, should take any and all necessary steps to make it easier to override Gilead’s monopoly on this product. Governments are afforded a broad range of flexibilities under the World Trade Organization’s agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). For example, countries may grant compulsory licenses on otherwise patented products, allowing their use without the authorisation of the patent holder. Actions like this can remove intellectual property barriers and may facilitate broader generic production.
Read more about our work in Brazil“HIV isn’t waiting, so why is Gilead?” Flores said. “Millions of people who need this medicine can’t currently access it. The pharmaceutical corporation must immediately lower its prices and expand access to lenacapavir — or governments like Brazil must take action. There are international legal tools in place for a reason: to protect public health. Brazil has used them in the past, and they must use them again now.”
MSF recently launched a campaign against Gilead and is encouraging people to sign up to join and voice their support for increased access to lenacapavir. MSF will also be hosting a satellite session on July 30 during AIDS 2026 on improving access to lenacapavir.
FINAL AIDS 2026 Press Release.docx
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Jane Rabothata
About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.
In South Africa, we currently run a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) project in Butterworth, Eastern Cape province, where we support the Department of Health (DoH) in improving care for patients with diabetes and hypertension. The project focuses on improving screening, diagnosis, management, and prevention of NCDs through advocacy, research, health promotion, training, and mentorship of Community Healthcare Workers.
MSF is also recognised as one of the pioneers in providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the public sector. It started the first HIV programme in South Africa in 1999. The organisation's earlier interventions in the country have primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape). The Eshowe project was handed over to DoH in 2023 after 12 years of operations. The Khayelitsha project was closed in 2020 after 22 years of activities and campaigning for improved HIV and TB treatment.
Other projects we have been involved in include our Migrant Project in the country's capital, Tshwane, which was handed over to authorities and a local Community-Based Organisation after building the capacity to work with undocumented populations. We also previously offered free, high-quality, and confidential medical care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Rustenburg, North West province.
To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work:
- SMS “JOIN” to 42110 to donate R30 Once-off
- Visit https://www.msf.org.za/donate
