Global Week of Action Targets Gilead’s Control of Lifesaving HIV Medicine on World AIDS Day
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Public Citizen and allies across the country and around the world are launching a coordinated World AIDS Day Global Week of Action (Nov. 24-Dec. 1) to confront the Big Pharma corporation Gilead Sciences over its stranglehold on lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable that can prevent HIV or help treat it when combined with other medicines.
Lenacapavir could be changing the direction of the HIV epidemic. Yet Gilead is rationing access through restrictive patents, exclusionary licensing, and deliberate regulatory delays that leave millions unprotected, at a time when 1.3 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2024.
“Communities are sending a message: if Gilead won’t open access, the world will force the issue,” said Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Director Peter Maybarduk. “Gilead is slow-walking registration in many countries, delaying access deals and controlling the generics market. Barriers to long-acting PrEP access cost lives. We can’t afford to miss this chance to transform the AIDS epidemic.”
While people at risk of HIV and people living with HIV are denied timely access, Gilead has:
- Withheld lenacapavir from too many middle-income countries, including most of Latin America.
- Maintained patent and licensing barriers that block generic competition.
- Slow-walked regulatory filings in countries with increasing HIV incidence.
- Promoted small pilot projects as proof of “access.”
Our Demands
The Week of Action elevates clear, concrete demands Gilead and governments can meet now:
- Set a fair price: $40 per year in all LMICs. And publish real prices, supply plans, and timelines.
- Break the monopoly. License access to generic lenacapavir in all low- and middle-income countries, enable broad generic production, end patent evergreening.
- Register it everywhere – now. End the regulatory stalling that keeps entire regions waiting.
- Fund national rollouts, not pilots. Stop using small “demonstration projects” as cover for inaction.
“Having a breakthrough drug means nothing if the people most at risk can’t access it. Gilead’s limited licensing deal and non-transparent pricing keep lenacapavir out of reach for millions—especially in countries where HIV is still rising,” said Tamara Prinsenberg, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Europe Advocacy and Policy Manager. “Donations and empty promises are not access. We call on Gilead to make equitable, affordable HIV treatment and prevention non-negotiable. Expand licensing, ensure transparency, and put people before profits.”
“It is unacceptable that science advances while the right to access regresses,” said Co-Founder of Global Humanitarian Progress Corp. Luz Marina Umbasia Bernal. “Latin America demands real access because without registration there is no access, and without access there is no justice.”
Representative events planned for the Week of Action include:
- Latin America convening (Nov. 27): Regional partners — including AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Public Citizen, Corresponsales Clave, AIS, Innovarte, GNP Corp — will host the Innovation Without Exclusion convening, presenting new research showing that expanding access to lenacapavir in Latin America could prevent up to 68% of new infections in the coming years. Latin American health groups have filed compulsory license requests with governments, to overcome the patent barrier.
- Latin America Region (Nov. 27): Letter to Gilead demanding accelerated registration, fair pricing, and an end to patent evergreening.
- Lima, Peru protest (Nov. 28): In Lima, AIS Peru and allied groups — including AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Public Citizen, Kimirina, Salud Diversa — will hold a protest under the #InnovaciónSinExclusión banner, demanding that Gilead stop treating lenacapavir as a luxury good and open access across the region.
- Mexico City mobilization (Nov. 30): During the AIDS Healthcare Foundation World AIDS Day concert at the Monumento a la Revolución, civil-society groups will read a manifesto calling for unrestricted access to lenacapavir and an end to Gilead’s monopoly.
- Tracking Gilead’s registration of lenacapavir for PrEP, here, compiled by Salud por Derecho.
- Coordinated digital campaigning: Community groups are releasing videos and social-media content throughout the week to spotlight Gilead’s monopoly and build pressure for immediate access to lenacapavir.