NOS highlights growing focus on affordable access to new medicines

Drawing on comments from Marijn Verhoef, a director at the Access to Medicine Foundation, the article explains that new medicines previously reached LMICs mainly through philanthropic programmes. Responsibility for access in these countries now sits with companies’ most senior management. The article also highlights how companies are increasingly considering affordability while medicines are still in development.  

The article focuses on Gilead’s HIV prevention medicine lenacapavir, illustrating how licensing agreements can enable lower-cost generic version to reach patients in 120 LMICs. Through comments from South African HIV researcher Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, it examines the potential benefits for people at risk of HIV, particularly young women, alongside the barriers that currently limit wider availability.  
 
The coverage also considers how cuts to international aid threaten progress in HIV prevention. It closes with Verhoef’s hope that planning for affordable access during medicine development will become standard practice among the industry, including for medicines targeting cancer and diabetes.