The European Commission’s medical regulator has cleared for use a new pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug, designed to prevent HIV in individuals and control the resurgence of the disease throughout Europe.
Marketed using the brand name Yeytuo, lenacapavir—delivered in two separate jabs—works by preventing the virus from replicating in the human body. It reduces the risk of acquiring HIV which, left untreated, can develop into full-blown Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
In 2023 saw more than 24,700 new HIV diagnoses in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway (up 11.8% from 2022). While the condition appears to be making a comeback in Europe, mainstream media seems reluctant to attribute blame. There are exceptions: last year, London’s Telegraph explicitly linked the rise in new cases to migration, after the U.K. accepted 3,198 HIV-positive new arrivals who were first diagnosed abroad.
Representing manufacturer Gilead Sciences, chief medical officer Dr. Dietmar Berger welcomed the Commission’s speedy approval of the drug and praised the
transformative potential of Yeytuo to help address the urgent unmet need in HIV prevention across Europe.
Politically, the drug can be brought under Brussels’ “public health” umbrella, sparing the EU and its member states from having to talk about migrant screening—or sexual morality.
