About 1 000 doses of Gilead Sciences Inc.s drug lenacapavir were delivered to Zambia and Eswatini last Thursday, US and company officials said, the first delivery under a US scheme to supply the HIV prevention drug to countries with a high prevalence of the virus that causes AIDS.
Zambia and Eswatini each received roughly 500 doses, and Gilead is working to receive regulatory approval for distribution in other so-called high-burden sub-Saharan countries. The African region remains the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic.
But the United States will not provide US-funded doses to South Africa, which has the worlds highest HIV burden with about 8 million people, or one in five adults, living with the virus.