NEW COST EFFECTIVE

HIV PREVENTION PILL

BRITAIN’S first national adviser for LGBT+ health has said the rollout of a highly effective HIV prevention pill could save hundreds of thousands of pounds for the country’s publicly funded health authority.

In an exclusive interview, Michael Brady, who’ll take up the role on April 1, said a planned rollout of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – a once-daily pill that protects against HIV – in England would prove cost effective “very quickly”.

“For me, the argument has always been one of cost effectiveness, not cost,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“There is no doubt about the cost effectiveness of PrEP… you actually put money back into the NHS pot very quickly by not having to spend £300 000 (R5.7 million) on lifetime treatment costs for (a patient living with) HIV.”

At present, NHS (National Health Service) England is in the middle of a three-year trial ending in 2020.

A spokesperson for the body said the trial would be expanded to 26 000 people “to help provide a sound basis on which to build a national PrEP programme”.

Brady, currently medical director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, one of Britain’s leading HIV/Aids charities, said he had three main priorities for the position, which will be an initial 12-month contract.

“Broadly, (they are) to improve the health and wellbeing of the LGBT community, improve the experience in the NHS and to reduce inequality,” he said. |