GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Several giant United States (US) and international groups focused on fighting HIV and AIDS on Tuesday unveiled a plan to swiftly provide affordable access to a possibly “game-changing” HIV prevention drug in lower-income countries.

The Global Fund, a partnership set up to battle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, said it had joined forces with PEPFAR, the main US programme aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, to “rapidly provide affordable and equitable access to twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)”.

Hope abounds that the antiretroviral drug already approved in a number of countries to help treat adults with multidrug-resistant HIV, could dramatically speed up the fight against the virus, with early trials finding the treatment 100 per cent effective in preventing infection.

“If rolled out at scale alongside other HIV prevention tools… lenacapavir has the potential to accelerate progress” toward the goal of ending the HIV/AIDS public health threat, and “ensuring a sustainable HIV response beyond 2030”, a statement read.

The Global Fund said the aim now was “to secure sustainable arrangements for countries to access this new, potentially game-changing HIV prevention innovation”, enabling “access to lenacapavir for at least two million people over three years”.

The plan, also backed by the World Health Organization, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, depends on regulatory approvals and a recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO), it said.

US pharmaceutical giant Gilead announced in October that it had signed royalty-free voluntary licensing deals with six generic drugmakers to supply low-cost versions of lenacapavir for HIV prevention in 120 lower-income countries.

Global Fund chief Peter Sands said the plan was to work with Gilead and the voluntary licensing manufacturers “to accelerate affordable and equitable access, so that more people can benefit from this powerful innovation from day one”.

“We are incredibly excited by the promise of lenacapavir and its potential to help us achieve a further significant reduction in new infections among individuals at high risk of acquiring HIV,” he said.

John Nkengasong, the US global AIDS coordinator, meanwhile highlighted that “we cannot reach a sustainable HIV response without rapidly reducing the 1.3 million new HIV infections that occur worldwide every year”.

“Lenacapavir offers a potentially tremendous opportunity to transform the impact of HIV programmes,” he said.