From Bettina Bauer, Vice President, US HIV Treatment and Prevention, Gilead Sciences
In 2022, there were up to 1.2 million people with HIV (PWH) and 37,981 new cases of HIV in the United States alone.1 While impressive advances have been made in HIV treatment and prevention, there remain significant disparities in the impact of HIV for underserved communities. At the recent United Nations General Assembly, leaders recommitted to ending AIDS, but we must do the hard work of bridging gaps in treatment and prevention to help meet our collective goal of ending the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.
I recently attended IDWeek 2024, a premiere scientific exchange for infectious disease experts, where we shared research results from our investigational HIV treatment and prevention options. Our research aims to help provide options for individuals to both prevent and treat HIV and help address unmet needs of people who are impacted by HIV – each vitally important components of ending the HIV epidemic.
Antiretroviral therapies work to help stop replication of the HIV virus in the body and can reduce the viral load to a point that it is undetectable, which is an important part of improving outcomes and prevents the virus from being transmitted to others via sex if this undetectable status is maintained for 6 months or longer.2 There is no cure for HIV, and it is a chronic disease, but PWH can take an active role in helping to select a treatment option that will help keep them undetectable over the long term.3 That is why we are committed to person-centered care, guided and informed by individuals’ goals, preferences, values, and research through collaboration with the people and communities most impacted by HIV.
There are also HIV prevention options like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which can reduce the risk of contracting HIV through sex by about 99% when taken as prescribed by adults and adolescents who do not have HIV.4 However, as Gilead presented at IDWeek, access to PrEP is multifaceted, and unmet needs remain to help address economic, geographic, and racial disparities. While an estimated 94% of White people who need or want PrEP were prescribed it, only 13% of Black and 24% of Latine people who need or want PrEP were prescribed it in the US in 2022.5 Data from the CDC also notes approximately one-fifth of new HIV infections in 2021 were among women, and over half of those infections were among Black women.5 Decreasing stigma and providing prevention education and treatment options across these diverse groups is of the utmost importance.
We are working with community advisors to design clinical trials to better understand the potential impact of our medicines on the most underserved communities. Gilead is committed to designing trials to help understand how HIV treatment and prevention impact populations that have been underrepresented in clinical studies despite the disproportionate impact of HIV on their communities, such as Black and Latine communities. We are also committed to corporate giving and program partnerships aimed at building a healthier world for all, like our support of Arianna’s Center efforts to address the unmet needs of the Transgender community in HIV care and the Setting the P.A.C.E. initiative, which seeks to increase HIV prevention, anti-stigma, and health equity efforts for Black cisgender and Transgender women and girls.
Achieving a future that ends the HIV epidemic requires us all to work together. With improved testing, linkage into care, and a variety of dosing options for treatment and prevention, we have many of the tools we need to help get there. This will take ongoing collaboration with the communities most affected and programs that address the cultural, social, and political inequities they face. It will also take collaboration at the global, national and local levels to achieve our goals. When we can provide options that help address the diverse needs of individuals in a patient-centered and equitable way, we will begin to see the end of the HIV epidemic.
US-UNBC-2688 October 2024
References:
1. Centers for Disease Control. Fast Facts: HIV in the United States. CDC.gov. Published May 14, 2024. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
2. Centers for Disease Control. Treating HIV. CDC.gov. Published April 12, 2024. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/treatment/index.html#cdc_treatment_types-treatment-types
3. Mahungu T, LR, Rodger A, J, Johnson M. HIV as a Chronic Disease. Clin Med. Published April 2009. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.9-2-125
4. Centers for Disease Control. Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). CDC.gov. Published July 5, 2022. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/prep/index.html#:~:text=PrEP%20reduces%20the%20risk%20of,use%20by%20at%20least%2074%25
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dear Colleague: Preliminary Data on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Coverage Released. www.cdc.gov. Published October 18, 2023. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/dear-colleague/dcl/20231017.html