Funding for routine commissioning a milestone moment in the battle for PrEP

The Department of Health and Social Care has today announced £16 million will be made available to local authorities in England for the routine commissioning of PrEP, the HIV prevention drug, in 2020.

Until now the drug was only available through the NHS funded IMPACT Trial, established to test how to deliver PrEP (but not whether the drug works, which is already proven).

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust), said:

According to a report launched today by a cross-party group of parliamentarians on HIV and AIDS, failure to address the mental health needs of people with HIV could negatively impact on progress towards ending the epidemic and is leading to increased infections.

Kat Smithson, Director of Policy at NAT (National AIDS Trust), said:

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive at NAT (National AIDS Trust), said:

"The Government’s continued silence on both the future of PrEP and the overdue local government funding settlement is inexcusable. Without these announcements local authorities have neither the time nor the resources necessary to plan the HIV prevention and sexual health services that are needed from April. It is no longer a case of being down to the wire, we are now well past it.

New statistics published today by the Scottish Government on drug-related deaths (DRDs) in Scotland show that there were 27% more DRDs in 2018 than the year before, with 1,187 drug-related deaths registered in Scotland in 2018. This is the largest number of drug-related deaths in Scotland since records began in 1996.

The High Court has today overturned Gilead's patent extension on Truvada, the HIV drug also used in PrEP.