HIV groups criticise decision not to recommend long-acting injectable PrEP for NHS use
PrEP can prevent people from contracting HIV when taken daily. (Getty Images)
HIV groups have criticised a decision not to recommend a long-acting injectable form of PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis) to be made available on the NHS.
Draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body that publishes guidelines on which treatments should be made available, failed to recommend the use of HIV prevention drug Cabotegravir (CAB-LA), which is administered every two months.
In pill form, PrEP is usually taken every day, and is available free from sexual health clinics in England, Scotland and Wales.
HIV charities, communities and healthcare professionals, including the National Aids Trust, the Terrence Higgins Trust and the British Association for Sexual Health & HIV, all aired their disappointment.
Despite PrEP being a critical aspect of HIV prevention, experts have warned that sexual health services in the UK are at “breaking point”, and a report in 2022 showed that about two-thirds of people are unable to readily access the treatment.
The groups said they are “deeply disappointed” by NICE’s draft decision and plan to demonstrate the “overwhelming merits” of the medicine. They will also write to independent HIV company, ViiV Healthcare, to “express our strong desire for a solution to be found for timely and affordable access to CAB-LA”.
They referred to the HIV Action Plan, which aims to end new transmissions by 2030, and said “significant inequities to PrEP access and social inequalities” mean that for many groups “oral options have not been able to bridge these divides”.
CAB-LA, sometimes sold under the brand name Vocabria, has the “potential to significantly benefit” individuals who are “underserved by existing prevention options”, and “provides a discreet, long-acting alternative that could help address these unmet needs,” they added.
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