Gilead Sciences will no longer provide four HIV medicines for free as part of a patient assistance program starting at the end of January, alarming community activists who worry the move will limit access and, consequently, impede nationwide efforts to combat the infectious disease.
The list includes Truvada, a widely prescribed medicine that is used to treat and prevent HIV, but for which lower-cost generic versions are now available. Access to cheaper alternatives and low enrollment prompted the company to remove the medicine — along with the HIV medicines Emtriva, Tybost, and Complera — from its patent assistance program next month, according to an Oct. 8 letter that announced the move and that has not been widely reported.
Pharmaceutical companies regularly tout their patient assistance programs as a show of goodwill, since these are used to mitigate the cost of medicines for people whose low income makes them eligible for free medicine. That said, companies do sometimes remove an older medicine from a program if it has lost patent protection and faces low-cost competition.
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