Lifesaving Gilead HIV drug to be sold as far cheaper generic in Africa and Asia | Semafor Events NewslettersHomepoliticsbusinesstechnologynet zerogulfafricasecuritymediaThe CEO SignalEventsNewslettersPodcastAboutSpeakers BureauCareersPrivacy© 2025 Semafor Inc.Homepoliticsbusinesstechnologynet zerogulfafricasecuritymediaThe CEO SignalAboutSpeakers BureauCareersPodcastPrivacy© 2025 Semafor Inc.D.C.BXLLagosRiyadhBeijingSG Events NewslettersD.C.BXLLagosRiyadhBeijingSGIntelligentTransparentGlobalHomepoliticsbusinesstechnologynet zerogulfafricasecuritymediaThe CEO SignalEventsNewslettersPodcastAboutSpeakers BureauCareersPrivacy© 2025 Semafor Inc.Homepoliticsbusinesstechnologynet zerogulfafricasecuritymediaThe CEO SignalSemafor SignalsLifesaving HIV drug to be sold as far cheaper generic in Africa and AsiaMarta BiinoUpdated Oct 3, 2024, 9:26am EDTOct 3, 2024, 9:26am EDTShareLeah Millis/ReutersPostEmailWhatsappCopy linkSign up for Semafor Flagship: The daily global news briefing you can trust. Read it now.Email addressSign UpThe NewsUS pharmaceutical company Gilead said it would allow drug manufacturers in Asia and Africa to make cheap generic versions of its life-saving HIV medication.Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection, provides near-total protection from the virus, but in the US, it costs $42,250 per patient per year — an unattainable sum for many developing-world health care systems.ADThe new deal would permit six companies to sell it for much less — perhaps as little as $40 — in 120 poorer nations. In 2023, there were 1.3 million new HIV infections around the world, according to HIV.gov.SIGNALSSemafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.Middle-income countries increasingly bereft of affordable healthcare accessSource:  The New York TimesGilead’s deal will not apply in several middle- and high-income countries that account for around 20% of new annual HIV infections, including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Russia, and they will still only have access to the drug at higher prices. The difference underscores “a widening gulf in health care access that is increasingly isolating the people in the middle,” The New York Times noted. Similar deals have been struck for other groundbreaking drugs to treat hepatitis, COVID-19, and cancer. Yet the people who may be most in need of the drug in middle-income countries are often members of marginalized groups that would most benefit from its wider availability in the public health care system, experts said.Gilead’s drug could be key to ending HIV globallySources:  The Guardian, People’s Medicine AllianceLenacapavir is widely recognized as a groundbreaking drug for the treatment of HIV infections, so much so that “it’s not an exaggeration to say that meeting the 2030 goal of ending new HIV transmissions hinges on Gilead ensuring people in the global south have fair access” to it, a senior officer for a network of young people living with HIV told The Guardian in the months before the generics deal was struck. While lenacapavir is currently only approved for treatment of HIV, recent studies have found the drug to also be highly effective at preventing the spread of the infection, and could be a “game changer,” the nonprofit People’s Medicine Alliance said in a statement.Sign up for Semafor flagshipThe daily global news briefing you can trust.In your inbox, twice every weekday. Read it now.Email addressSign up for freeSign inAlready subscribed? Sign in and we won’t show you this message again.Take me back to the article ADTransparent news, distilled views, and global perspectives.Homepoliticsbusinesstechnologynet zerogulfafricasecuritymediaThe CEO SignalEventsNewslettersPodcastAboutCareersSpeakers Bureau© 2025 Semafor Inc.Privacy
Jonas Salk didn't really have the option of patenting his Polio vaccine.  It's a persistent myth that he chose not to out of pure philanthropy.

> The National Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh, where much of the work was done, had looked into patenting the vaccine.

> They were dissuaded by Salk, who informed them that his techniques weren’t novel and his work had been based on years of prior work by others. “If there were any patentable novelty to be found in this phase,” their patent attorney reported, “it would lie within an extremely narrow scope and would be of doubtful value.”

> [On Jonas Salk’s 100th birthday, a celebration of his polio vaccine](https://archive.ph/bugyy#selection-1591.66-1591.72)

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> This retelling of the history of polio, however, is largely a distortion. The full, true story is far more complex. Its hero is Albert Sabin...

> [The Myth of Jonas Salk](https://www.technologyreview.com/2005/07/01/230689/the-myth-of-jonas-salk/)