ViiV ‘actively negotiating’ voluntary licence for HIV prevention drug
GlaxoSmithKline’s ViiV Healthcare is “actively negotiating” a voluntary licence on the patents for its injectable HIV prevention drug to make it more widely available in poorer nations, where fewer than a third of those at risk are on prophylactic treatment.
Deborah Waterhouse, ViiV chief executive, said in an interview that the GSK majority-owned drugmaker was committed to licensing the patents relating to the drug and that it was in talks over terms with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool.
ViiV makes cabotegravir, a long-acting, injectable drug that is highly effective in preventing HIV infection. It is given as infrequently as six times per year. A licence would enable generic makers to produce more of the drug at affordable prices without the risk of patent litigation, widening availability at the same time.
The move underscores how protracted battles on intellectual property during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially for vaccines, may have altered how companies think about access to medicines.
ViiV had initially said in March it was “unable” to seek a voluntary licence for the drug, mainly because of manufacturing challenges, according to archived copies of the webpage seen by the Financial Times. After an outcry, ViiV issued a statement, stored at the same URL, saying it was open to the voluntary licensing of its patents.
Waterhouse said this had been a “misunderstanding . . . Our policies [on access] never change . . . We’ve always been open to exploring licences on this medicine and all others.”
Cabotegravir is part of an HIV prevention strategy called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which is highly effective and has reduced new infections where it is widely used. Before cabotegravir, PrEP was available only in tablet form, usually taken daily.
Charles Gore, the head of the MPP, said the drug could be “a game-changer in prevention”.
Despite improvement, global access remains lopsided. According to the UN, in 2020, the drug had reached only 28 per cent of the 3mn targeted in poorer nations.
Jessica Burry, of the HIV and Hepatitis C access campaign at the Médecins sans Frontières charity, welcomed the news. She said, however, that it had “taken far too long even to get to this point”, delaying entry of a more affordable and generic version of the drug into the market.
Asia Russell, executive director at Health Gap, said the company should make the drug available in the interim at a price comparable to oral PrEP, which can retail for less than $30 per month.
Waterhouse said the drug, a vial of which retails at $3,700 per year in the US, would be available to low-income, least-developed and sub-Saharan African countries at a non-profit price until a generic became available.
ViiV had earlier this year privately told stakeholders this could be as low as $240 per patient a year, according to people familiar with the matter. Waterhouse and the company declined to comment on pricing. However, ViiV alone cannot satisfy global demand.
The need for effective and easily accessible PrEP continues to be strong. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, thousands of young women and adolescent girls contract HIV every week, said Kimberly Smith, ViiV’s chief of research and development.
“Those numbers are shocking and upsetting and we all feel the need to do something,” she said. “We want to be able to reach as many as we can to change the trajectory of the pandemic.”