African countries are being backed to develop their own manufacturing capacity for next-generation HIV prevention medicines in a move aimed at reducing reliance on overseas drugmakers.
Manufacturers in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa are to receive support from global health agency Unitaid to strengthen African production of HIV prevention products.
Unitaid said strengthening local manufacturing could help create more resilient supply chains while allowing African producers to play a larger role in making medicines for the continent’s own needs.
The drug, alimatravir, is a once-monthly oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine currently in Phase III clinical trials. If approved by regulators, it could become an important new prevention option alongside existing daily oral PrEP and long-acting injectable antiretrovirals (ARVs).
It comes as abrupt US foreign aid cuts implemented last year have disrupted access to prevention innovations, shuttered thousands of HIV treatment centres and impacted prevention programmes.
The World Health Organisation recommended access in 2025 to lenacapavir, a long-acting, twice-yearly injectable ARV medication used for both treatment and prevention of HIV. However, experts at last week’s Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro said that funding cuts mean those who most need the new medication will not be able to access it.
Lenacapavir, developed by US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, had generated excitement among HIV researchers and advocates because it could help reach people who struggle to access or consistently use existing prevention daily or weekly options.
More than 1,700 HIV treatment clinics and service sites have closed around the world and at least 16,000 health workers have lost their jobs after the US Trump administration’s abrupt cuts to global aid.
It disrupted the world’s largest AIDS/HIV prevention programme, despite a US pledge to protect lifesaving care, devastating prevention programmes as spending fall by more than half. Even organisations that retained US funding have been forced to stop providing services to key populations, such as sex workers.
The majority of people living with HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa, but the continent has long depended heavily on imported medicines and health products.
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Almost all active pharmaceutical ingredients and around 70 per cent of finished medicines used in Africa are sourced from abroad, according to Unitaid.
PrEP is 99 per cent effective in preventing sexually transmitted HIV for people who take it consistently.
But public health experts say that African manufacturers need investment, technical expertise, regulatory support and guaranteed markets before local production can operate at the scale required.
“Scientific innovation is absolutely key for health and, particularly for HIV prevention, innovation has to come with access plans to improve health outcomes,” said Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “The capacity to manufacture low-priced, quality-assured medicines where they are needed is part of this access plan we need.”
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project