Legislators Ask CDC to Make the New HIV Prevention Drug Free of Cost

Democrats Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres are asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to make the new HIV prevention drug free of cost. 

A letter by Jones and Torres signed by 56 additional members of the Congress requested that a new injectable form of PrEP be accessible as possible for people in treatment.  

In December last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it has approved the world’s first injectable treatment to help prevent HIV. Instead of the daily pills required for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the new drug, Apretude, first requires two shots one month apart, followed by one shot every two months. 

According to NBC News, insurers will not be required to cover all costs for the new injectable version of PrEP, which has a list price of $3,700 per dose and is slated to begin shipping to wholesalers and specialty distributors in the U.S. early this year. Unlike the pills, insurers are not required to cover the cost of the injections. 

“To ensure that this life-saving medication is as accessible as possible to the people who need it most, particularly LGBTQ+ people and people of color, we urge you to ensure that public and private insurance plans cover Apretude at no cost to patients—just like the other forms of PrEP,” urges Torres and Jones.

According to LGBTQ Nation, the letter explained that PrEP is 99 percent effective against sexually-transmitted HIV infections when used properly and as such us recommended for use by 1.2 million people in the United States. 

“Not only has access to PrEP been inadequate, it has also been inequitable,” they write. “The disparate impacts of HIV on communities of color and transgender women are mirrored by the disparately low access to PrEP in those same communities.”

Jones tells LGBTQ Nation that this cause is something personal to him: “I am one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans for whom PrEP has been life-changing,” he says. “For decades, Black, LGBTQ+ individuals have been among the hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

They concluded the letter by asking the government agencies to require both public and private insurance companies to make Apretude free for all who would benefit from PrEP, “just like oral PrEP is today.”

“Our health care system must not financially discriminate against what may be the most effective way of preventing this harrowing epidemic.” say Jones and Torres in the letter.