NEW YORK, June 17, 2026 — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has launched a global campaign urging pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to make the HIV prevention medicine lenacapavir more affordable and accessible worldwide.
MSF is calling on Gilead to reduce the price of lenacapavir to Kes 5,200 ($40 per person per year,) increase global supply, and allow wider access to the medicine, which experts describe as a major breakthrough in HIV prevention.
Lenacapavir is a long-acting injectable form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that is administered only twice a year and has demonstrated near 100 percent effectiveness in preventing HIV infection. The medicine could be especially valuable for communities at higher risk of HIV exposure, including men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and communities facing limited access to healthcare.
MSF says about 1.2 million people acquired HIV globally in 2025, highlighting the urgent need for new prevention tools.
“Millions of people need lenacapavir right now,” said Dr. Tom Ellman, director of MSF’s Southern Africa Medical Unit. “We have seen in the past how unequal access to HIV medicines resulted in devastating consequences. We cannot allow history to repeat itself with this new prevention medicine.”
MSF says Gilead currently controls the production and distribution of lenacapavir and has limited availability in low- and middle-income countries. The organisation claims the company has declined to sell the medicine directly to MSF for use in its humanitarian programmes.
Instead, Gilead has directed MSF to obtain supplies through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has received limited doses for eligible countries. MSF says available supplies are already under pressure in countries including Eswatini and Kenya, while some communities needing the medicine do not qualify under current access arrangements.
In contrast, lenacapavir is available in wealthier markets, including the United States, where MSF says the annual cost is more than $28,000 per patient.
“Gilead says it wants to help end HIV everywhere, but its current access model raises serious concerns,” said Melissa Barber, MSF USA global health advocacy and policy advisor. “People need access to both injections covering a full year of protection at an affordable price.”
MSF also criticised current licensing arrangements that allow selected generic manufacturers to produce lower-cost versions of lenacapavir, saying the medicines are not expected to become available until at least 2027. The organisation says several countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Peru, are excluded from existing agreements despite hosting clinical trials for the medicine.
The organisation estimates that a significant share of new HIV infections occur in countries currently excluded from these licensing agreements.
MSF is also urging governments to use legal measures available under the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement if access barriers continue. These measures can include compulsory licensing, which allows governments to permit production or use of patented medicines under specific circumstances.
“Governments must act if companies continue putting profits ahead of public health,” Dr. Ellman said. “Legal tools exist to overcome patent barriers and expand access to lifesaving medicines.”
MSF launched the campaign ahead of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York, calling on governments, pharmaceutical companies and communities to support wider access to lenacapavir.
The organisation says expanding access to the twice-yearly HIV prevention injection could become a critical step in reducing new infections, particularly among vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries.
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