HIV prevention drug rolled out on NHS ... at a cost of £10m
A CONTROVERSIAL drug that prevents HIV will be available on the NHS from next month.
The once-a-day pills will be offered to up to 10,000 high-risk patients, such as gay men and sex workers.
The medication – known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or Prep – works by disabling the HIV virus before it takes over the body.
The NHS refused to provide the drug last May, but was taken to the High Court and then the Court of Appeal, where a panel of judges ruled that it should offer Prep on the grounds that it would save money by preventing the spread of HIV.
The ruling meant money had to be diverted from the NHS’s specialist treatment budget, which is used to treat illnesses such as cystic fibrosis and blood cancer.
Up to 13 treatments were feared to be at risk, but NHS England now says they will all be paid for.
Trials show that if Prep is taken daily, it cuts the risk of a person contracting HIV by 86 per cent. But it doesn’t prevent the spread of other sexual diseases, including gonorrhoea, hepatitis and chlamydia.
Critics warned that the pills could encourage patients to play Russian roulette by having unprotected sex in the knowledge that they almost certainly wouldn’t get HIV.
The drug will be provided initially at sexual health clinics in London, Brighton, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield in a three-year £10million trial.
Prep will be offered to highrisk groups including gay men, sex workers, transgender people and anyone in a relationship with an HIV patient.
It should be available nationwide by April next year. But the drug’s rollout comes as NHS bosses ration other services to save money.
Health trusts are cutting back on hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and wheelchairs to balance the books.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: ‘This major intervention should com-
‘Welcome and long overdue’
plement and supercharge the wide-ranging and increasingly successful effort to prevent HIV.
‘It’s another milestone in more than three decades of progress in tackling one of humanity’s major health challenges.’
NHS England had refused to provide the drug because it said HIV prevention was the respon- sibility of local councils. But it was challenged by the National Aids Trust charity and the Local Government Association, which won a case at the High Court in September and an appeal at the Court of Appeal in November.
Deborah Gold, chief executive of the National Aids Trust, said: ‘This is a pivotal moment in the fight against HIV.
‘Prep, if targeted properly at those in need and at risk, offers the possibility of transforming the English HIV epidemic.
‘From September, people at high risk of HIV will have access via this NHS-funded trial in England to an empowering tool that is individually controlled and not subject to negotiation with a partner, leading to the improvement of many lives.’
Ian Green, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, which represents HIV and Aids patients, said: ‘ The priority must now be to make sure that the trial is rolled out speedily across the country, and that no one at risk of HIV is left behind.
‘Now that the Prep trial drug has been procured, we’re well on the way to protecting over 10,000 people at risk of HIV.’
Sharon Hodgson, Labour’s health spokesman, said: ‘ The start of the Prep trial is welcome and long overdue.
‘The evidence shows just how transformative this drug can be. This trial will take us one step closer to fully understanding the benefits of Prep.
‘It is important that this trial is rolled out as quickly as possible across the country to protect individuals who are exposed to HIV and help take us one step closer to ending the spread of HIV in society.’