The long wait for long-acting HIV prevention and treatment formulations.

Large randomised studies of new long-acting medications for the prevention and treatment of HIV have shown high effectiveness and acceptability. Although modelling studies indicate these agents could be fundamental in HIV elimination, coordination of their entry into health-care markets is crucial, especially in low-income and middle-income countries with high HIV prevalence, where coordination is low despite UNAIDS flagging that global HIV targets will not be met. Research and implementation projects are tightly controlled by originator pharmaceutical companies, with only a small percentage of eligible people living with or affected by HIV benefiting from these projects. WHO, financial donors, manufacturers, and governments need to consider urgent coordinated action from stakeholders worldwide, akin to the successful introduction of dolutegravir into treatment programmes across low-income and middle-income countries. Without this immediate coordination, large-scale access to long-acting agents for HIV will be delayed, potentially extending into the 2030s. This delay is unacceptable considering the established global HIV targets.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests WDFV receives grants paid to University of the Witwatersrand from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, South African Medical Research Council, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Unitaid, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Children's Investment Fund Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), ViiV Healthcare, and Merck; drug donations from Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, Merck, and Johnson and Johnson; honoraria for educational talks and advisory board membership from Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, Mylan-Viatris, Merck, Adcock-Ingram, Aspen, Abbott, Roche, Johnson and Johnson, Sanofi, and Virology Education; conducts commercial drug studies for Merck and Novo Nordisk; and is a member of the international NIH HIV data safety monitoring board and WHO and Southern African HIV Clinicians Society HIV guideline committees. MG is supported financially by NIH. SLB is a member of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition board, a Global Coalition of Tuberculosis Activists fiscal sponsor, and is a member of the Global Public Investment Network and Global Fund Advocate Network steering committees. LJ is financially supported by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BH receives grant support from ViiV Healthcare to amFAR. MW's receives support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition. KM has received honoraria from Johnson and Johnson. LG-B has received honoraria for advisories to Merck, ViiV Healthcare, and Gilead Sciences; is an unpaid board member for Access to Medicine Foundation, AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative; and her unit (Desmond Tutu HIV Centre) has received a study drug from ViiV Healthcare and Johnson and Johnson for studies funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AO reports consulting fees for Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, and Assembly Biosciences; and is Director and Chief Science Officer for Tandem Nano, with patents issued and pending in drug delivery. AP receives grants paid to NEAT ID from NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the EU (via the VERDI Consortium), Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, and Merck for commercial drug studies; receives honoraria for educational talks and advisory board membership from Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, Merck, and Virology Education; is on a data safety monitoring board for MRC–PENTA studies; is a member of the European AIDS Clinical Society and British HIV Association HIV treatment guidelines panels; is the President of NEAT ID; and is a board member of Doctor's with Africa CUAMM UK. PR has received grants from ViiV Healthcare and consulted for Gilead Sciences. All other authors declare no competing interests.
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