Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

This picture taken on December 7, 2016 shows a nurse holding a vial containing blood from an individual that will be sent for HIV testing at the LoveYourself Anglo Center in Manila. Noel Celis, AFP/File

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Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1757029560418cropped-Screen Shot 2025-09-05 at 7.44.45 AM.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">This picture taken on December 7, 2016 shows a nurse holding a vial containing blood from an individual that will be sent for HIV testing at the LoveYourself Anglo Center in Manila. Noel Celis, AFP/File</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align:left"><br/></div><p>WASHINGTON, United States — The United States will fund a program for affordable access to a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug in lower-income countries, the State Department said Thursday, sparing it from Donald Trump&#x27;s foreign aid blitz.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/7/17/who-releases-new-guidelines-on-injectable-drug-for-hiv-prevention-1751">WHO releases new guidelines on injectable drug for HIV prevention</a></div><p>Trump has thrown billions of dollars of US assistance into question since January, including for the highly popular President&#x27;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has been credited with saving some 26 million lives since 2003.</p><p>His cost-cutting cast doubt on the US honoring a December 2024 agreement with the UN-backed Global Fund and other groups to purchase lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by more than 99.9 percent.</p><p>On Thursday, the State Department announced it would back the project -- framing it as part of Trump&#x27;s protectionist &quot;America First&quot; agenda.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s going to help bring down the cost for Americans and for people around the world, and it&#x27;s going to help increase access to this important medication,&quot; Jeremy Lewin, a State Department official, told journalists.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/6/5/doh-assures-enough-antiretroviral-drugs-testing-kits-amid-concerns-in-surge-in-hiv-infections-1411">DOH assures enough antiretroviral drugs, testing kits amid concerns in surge in HIV infections</a></div><p>He did not specify the US financial commitment, describing it only as &quot;significant.&quot;</p><p>Lenacapavir, marketed under the brand name Yeztugo, is manufactured by California-based Gilead Sciences, which has said it will provide the drug at no profit as part of the partnership.</p><p>The initiative aims to reach at least two million people by 2028. The participating countries are yet to be named.</p><p>Many experts are hopeful that the antiretroviral drug, already approved in a number of countries to help treat adults with multidrug-resistant HIV, could dramatically speed up the fight against the virus.</p><p>Lewin said the US role in the partnership would be limited to purchasing and supplying lenacapavir to local governments, who would then be responsible to distribute the medication themselves.</p><p>&quot;There are no NGOs involved in this. There are none of those sort of beltway bandits here,&quot; Lewin said, employing a derogatory term for US federal government contractors.</p><p>Trump, with the help of billionaire donor Elon Musk, has taken a sledgehammer to foreign aid and effectively dismantled USAID -- the world&#x27;s largest humanitarian aid agency -- as part of wider cost cutting measures.</p><p>He has also pulled back on PEPFAR&#x27;s roughly $6 billion annual funding, limiting its work to pregnant and breastfeeding women.</p><p>UNAIDS in April warned that a permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR would lead to more than six million new infections and an additional 4.2 million AIDS-related deaths in the next four years.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uT7I7E8Lt4A?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1V4XTg5x_Xw?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/></div>

<p>The United States will fund a program for affordable access to a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug in lower-income countries, the State Department said Thursday, sparing it from Donald Trump's foreign aid blitz.</p>

The United States will fund a program for affordable access to a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug in lower-income countries, the State Department said Thursday, sparing it from Donald Trump's foreign aid blitz.

US backs HIV prevention drug program despite aid cuts

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US backs HIV prevention drug program despite aid cuts

Agence France-Presse

Published Sep 05, 2025 07:48 AM PHT

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