- In 2022, ViiV Healthcare, the company that makes a revolutionary but expensive HIV prevention injection, announced it was working on a non-profit price for countries such as South Africa.
- The jab, called CAB-LA (short for long-acting cabotegravir), has to be taken every two months and can lower someone’s chances of contracting HIV through sex to virtually zero. It is sold in the US at $3 700 (close to R70 000) a pop.
- ViiV, which is based in the United Kingdom, told Bhekisisa it will sell CAB-LA at a non-profit price of £24.70 per jab in 2023 and £23.50 in 2024 (so at between R540 and R570 per shot — you need six per year). The price tag however, excludes distribution costs.
- Cheaper, generic versions of CAB-LA will only be available in three to seven years.
- Donors such as the US government’s Aids fund, Pepfar, and the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria, will buy the branded injection for African countries. Experts say ViiV have told them it is able to make just under a million jabs per year, but ViiV has not confirmed this number to Bhekisisa. Is this enough?
- In this podcast, Mia Malan asks Mitchell Warren for answers. Warren leads a group of organisations and donors who look at ways to make the jab available as fast as possible.
When will SA get the anti-HIV jab? Mia Malan breaks it down in this newsletter. Sign up.
Mia Malan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Bhekisisa. She has worked in newsrooms in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington, DC, winning more than 30 awards for her radio, print and television work.
Danny Booysen is a freelance audio technical producer and has over 30 years of experience in the broadcast industry.
