(VOR News) – On Wednesday, HIV researchers reported that women who received twice-yearly AIDS shots were 100% protected from new infections.

Young women and girls who received immunisations in a 5,000-person research in South Africa and Uganda did not get sick. About 2% of daily preventative pill users contract HIV from infected sexual partners.

Salim Abdool Karim called the injections “striking” for their protection. He directs a Durban AIDS research institute and was not engaged in the study.

Gilead’s Sunlenca HIV shots are only approved in the US, Canada, Europe, and other nations. The company is expecting male test results before asking approval to use it as an infection preventative.

The findings were discussed at an AIDS conference in Munich and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

Gilead funded the study, and some researchers worked on it. Due to unexpectedly strong findings, the experiment was discontinued early, and all individuals received lenacapavir injections.

HIV prevention drugs and condom use are problematic in Africa.

Gilead’s Truvada and Descovy preventive drugs were taken by 30% of the new study participants, and that percentage gradually fell.

In Masiphumelele, South Africa, Thandeka Nkosi, who heads Gilead research at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, described the twice-yearly injection as “quite revolutionary news.” She explained, “It simply removes the stigma surrounding taking pills to prevent HIV and allows participants to make their own decisions.”

AIDS prevention experts commend the Sunlenca vaccine, but Gilead hasn’t established a fair price for the most vulnerable. The company claimed it would seek a “voluntary licensing program,” limiting generic manufacture to a select group.

Winnie Byanyima, Geneva-based U.N. AIDS agency executive director, says “Gilead has a tool that could change the trajectory of the HIV epidemic.”

She said her organisation pressured Gilead to share Sunlenca’s patent with a U.N.-backed program that negotiates major contracts to allow generic drugmakers to provide affordable pharmaceuticals for developing nations. In the US, HIV treatment medication costs over $40,000.

The injections could “reverse the epidemic if they are made available in countries with the highest rate of new infections,” said Doctors Without Borders’ Dr. Helen Bygrave. She begged Gilead to set a fair Sunlenca price for all nations.

Last month, Gilead said it was too early to assess Sunlenca’s preventive costs in underdeveloped nations. Dr. Jared Baeten, Gilead’s senior vice president of clinical development, said the company was talking to generics makers and understood the importance of moving rapidly.

Apretude, a second HIV preventative injection every two months, is approved in some countries, mainly in Africa. Most developing nations cannot afford its $180 per patient per year price.

Byanyima said gay men in countries where same-sex partnerships are outlawed and domestic violence victims need constant protection.

Among new HIV infections in 2022, 46% were women.

Girls and women from African countries had a threefold higher risk than men. Byanyima compared the Sunlenca finding to the decades-old discovery of AIDS drugs, which made HIV infection a chronic disease rather than a death sentence.

Nelson Mandela, the president of South Africa at the time, halted patents to increase access to pharmaceuticals, lowering the cost per patient from $10,000 to $50.

Health worker Olwethu Kemele of Desmond Tutu Health Foundation expects the immunisations to boost HIV prevention services and curb the virus’s spread. She says young women hide pill use from family and lovers. She said girls struggle to continue.

According to UNAIDS, 2023 will have the lowest number of HIV-positive individuals since the late 1980s. An examination of the global pandemic was conducted.

Approximately 1.3 million people contract HIV every year, and over 600,000 die from the disease, most of them in Africa. Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East are experiencing an increase in HIV infections despite progress in Africa.

Another study presented at the AIDS conference by Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool and colleagues estimated that Sunlenca should become cheaper at $40 per treatment until production reaches 10 million people. He stressed that health officials needed Sunlenca immediately.

He said “This is about as close to an HIV vaccine as you can get.”

SOURCE: NBC