Agreement creates a regional pathway through PAHO’s Regional Revolving Funds to support country-led adoption of long-acting HIV prevention

Partnership advances Gilead’s global access strategy, helping translate scientific innovation into public health impact

Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced a new agreement with the Pan American Health Organization to accelerate access to twice-yearly lenacapavir for HIV prevention, used as pre-exposure prophylaxis, across all PAHO member states in Latin America and the Caribbean. Working through PAHO’s Regional Revolving Funds, the agreement sets up a coordinated regional pathway to widen access to long-acting HIV prevention and support country-led adoption and rollout, as part of broader regional efforts to end the epidemic.

Key highlights

• Marks a major milestone within Gilead’s broader global strategy for expanding lenacapavir access
• Establishes a regional pathway spanning all PAHO member states in Latin America and the Caribbean to support country-led adoption and rollout
• Pairs PAHO’s regional coordination and procurement capabilities with Gilead’s access strategy to enable sustainable scale-up

The agreement with PAHO builds on Gilead’s long-running scientific and access efforts to address HIV incidence in Latin America and the Caribbean, where new infections rose by 13 percent between 2010 and 2024 and gaps remain in PrEP uptake. These efforts include the PURPOSE 2 trial, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of twice-yearly lenacapavir for PrEP and forms part of Gilead’s broader commitment to expanding prevention access across the region.

The announcement opens a new access pathway for 14 countries that fall outside Gilead’s lenacapavir voluntary licensing agreements, complementing the generic access pathways already in place across the region. Combined, these tailored approaches help widen access to lenacapavir for PrEP throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The 14 countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Johanna Mercier, chief commercial and corporate affairs officer at Gilead Sciences, said the agreement between Gilead and PAHO reflects a shared commitment to helping countries move as quickly as possible from scientific innovation to real-world access to HIV prevention and measurable public health impact. She said Gilead has spent decades working alongside governments, public health organizations, and communities to widen access to HIV innovation worldwide, and that partnerships like this one are essential to the company’s ambition of helping end the HIV epidemic. She said the agreement shows how collaboration can accelerate access, support country-led implementation, and build the conditions needed for sustainable scale.

Beyond this agreement, Gilead said it intends to keep exploring ways to work with PAHO to support country readiness and the scale-up of long-acting HIV prevention access, in line with individual country priorities and PAHO’s regional public health leadership through the Alliance for the Elimination of HIV in the Americas. The Alliance brings together governments, partners, and communities to help accelerate and sustain progress toward ending HIV as a public health issue, including by reaching populations who face the greatest barriers to effective prevention.

PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa said the Americas now have increasingly effective tools to prevent HIV, but these innovations will only make a difference if they reach the people who need them. He called the initiative an important step toward closing gaps in access to lenacapavir, expanding the prevention options available to countries, and moving closer to HIV elimination.

Beyond this agreement, Gilead continues to explore opportunities with Brazil’s Ministry of Health to support the Ministry’s goal of enabling local production of lenacapavir in Brazil and to further the long-term regional access objectives outlined in its partnership with PAHO.

The agreement with PAHO forms part of Gilead’s broader global access strategy for lenacapavir, which combines voluntary licensing, technology transfer, no-profit supply, regional access pathways, and partnerships to accelerate access to HIV prevention worldwide. Together, these complementary approaches are designed to help move countries from planning toward implementation while laying the groundwork for sustainable access at scale, reflecting Gilead’s commitment to expanding prevention choice and helping more people benefit from scientific progress in HIV prevention.