This webinar took place on June 5 and gave an overview of the recent PrEP pricing advocacy that has taken place, and provided information on how webinar attendees can get more involved in ongoing community efforts to make PrEP affordable. We also looked at how health departments might benefit from a drastic reduction in the cost of PrEP and some of the innovative access programs that could be better funded with less money spent on medications.

Thanks to robust community advocacy fueling substantial media coverage, the Washington Post and the New York Times investigated access barriers created by the high price of PrEP for HIV prevention. As a result on May 16^th, the House Oversight and Reform Committee conducted a two-hour hearing on the mindboggling price of PrEP. Truvada – the only current FDA approved PrEP – is currently sold at a list price of over $20,000 per person per year by Gilead Sciences, despite costing less than $70 to manufacture, creating several direct and indirect barriers to access for communities that need PrEP the most. While price is not the only barrier to PrEP uptake, the high price must be addressed by the U.S. government, community advocates, and other key stakeholders in PrEP scale up, particularly for low-income, vulnerable communities.

Webinar Recording: