Gilead stockholders: Demand Gilead sell HIV prevention drug to those who need it
Pharmaceutical corporation must do more to ensure people have access to lenacapavir worldwide.
April 30, 2026 – As Gilead Sciences' stockholders convene today for the company’s annual meeting, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on them to push the US pharmaceutical giant to sell the highly effective HIV prevention medication lenacapavir to MSF for use in its medical projects across the world.
Lenacapavir is a long-acting injectable form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) administered just twice a year that is nearly 100 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission. It is especially valuable for people at heightened risk — including men who have sex with men, transgender individuals and sex workers — who face stigma, discrimination and criminalization that often block their access to health care. In humanitarian settings where health care is intermittent and people are often mobile, a single injection providing six months of protection is transformative.
For the past year, Gilead has refused requests from MSF to purchase even a limited supply. Negotiations have not stalled over price, but rather over whether Gilead will sell this medicine to MSF at all. Instead, the company has directed MSF to procure the medicine for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This is a pathway that Gilead knows excludes countries and communities that MSF is trying to reach. It’s also not adequately meeting the needs in places like Eswatini and Kenya, where the capped amounts they have been allocated are not enough to meet demand, and supplies are running short.
While Gilead has also made a deal with select generic manufacturers to make the medicine available at a lower price than it sells it for in wealthier countries like the US — $40 versus $28,000 a year per patient — these generics will not be available until 2027 at the earliest, and many countries, including countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru that hosted the lenacapavir clinical trials, are excluded from that license. In fact, a quarter of new HIV infections are happening in countries excluded from this deal.
Melissa Barber, MSF USA global health advocacy and policy advisor, said today:
”From southern Africa to Central America, our medical teams are eager to provide lenacapavir to people most at risk of contracting the virus. Instead, they're empty-handed because Gilead is choosing not to sell this new HIV prevention medicine at the scale that’s needed.
“Gilead’s choice is a deadly one. Approximately 1.3 million people worldwide acquire HIV every year, but those rates could be rolled back if lenacapavir were more accessible for the people who need it most.
“Gilead says it wants to end HIV ‘for everyone, everywhere.’ But, in practice, the company isn’t just pricing lenacapavir out of reach — it’s refusing to sell it at all, even to ready buyers like MSF.
“There are serious corporate governance questions when a company has a breakthrough drug and clear demand but still chooses not to sell. Gilead’s stockholders — including those with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments — should ask them today and re-evaluate whether or not Gilead still meets their standards.”