The US will buy 2 million doses of an HIV prevention drug for low-income countries

The U.S. is purchasing enough doses of a new twice-a-year HIV prevention shot to share with up to 2 million people in poor countries by 2028, the State Department announced Thursday.

Gilead Sciences had already announced it would sell that supply of the protective drug lenacapvir at no profit for use in low- and middle-income countries that are hard-hit by HIV. The question was who would buy and distribute them after the Trump administration slashed foreign aid earlier this year – forcing closures of health clinics and disrupting HIV testing and care in many countries.

Under Thursday’s move, the U.S. will purchase the doses under the PEPFAR program and work with governments in hard-hit countries on how to distribute them. The priority will be to protect pregnant or breastfeeding women, said Jeremy Lewin, a State department senior official.

Lewin said the program will be a collaboration with the Global Fund, another international program that funds HIV treatment and prevention efforts but wouldn’t disclose how much the U.S. was investing.