";s:4:"text";s:5902:" The research that went into making the drug, the Post reports, was done by Thomas Folks at a federally-funded U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab. You did. Getty Images. Today, on National HIV Prevention Day, they ask the question: Why is it so expensive?“I think the biggest barrier at the moment is cost,” Jason Rosenberg, an activist in New York City involved with Christian Urrutia, an associate at the United Way of New York City who is also affiliated with Break the Patent, echoes Rosenberg. “Cost is the elephant in the room,” Dr. Brad Hare, director of HIV Care and Prevention at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco And if we’re going to help drug addicts avoid HIV, we’re going to need something less expensiveAddicts need HIV prevention drugs the mostâbut they can't afford them The Truvada has made my GFR go down to 30, very close to changing medicines at that point. Truvada’s list price is currently almost $2,000 for a 30-day supply. But activists note that research for the use of Truvada as PrEP was almost entirely funded by the federal government itself. The U.S. government owns the patent for Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis. 4) Truvada for the prevention of HIV Ocasio-Cortez asks why HIV prevention drug is so expensive It’s a hopeful sign, but such approval is independent of several steps required for commercialization, and the U.S. probably won’t see a generic equivalent of Truvada available any time soon.Ultimately, as long as Gilead currently holds the patents for Truvada, and as long as so many people — especially poor people, the underinsured and those among communities of color — continue to struggle to access PrEP, ethical questions will remain. Using $50 million in federal grants, Folks proved that Truvada could prevent HIV infection in people who were exposed to HIV. AOC Grills Gilead CEO on Truvada Cost: 'People Are Dying for No Reason' The congresswoman asked why the HIV prevention drug costs nearly $2,000 in the U.S. but only $8 in Australia. “Because the price of the drug is so high, it requires a lot of funding by community groups who, if they weren’t spending so much money getting the drug out to people, could be allocated to other barriers like education and community outreach,” he says.Urrutia says Gilead often justifies Truvada’s price by noting that its profits are used for research and development of new drugs. They have same high-quality as the original, but cost much less. AOC Grills Gilead CEO on Truvada Cost: 'People Are Dying for No Reason'The congresswoman asked why the HIV prevention drug costs nearly $2,000 in the U.S. but only $8 in Australia.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is demanding to know why the cost of Truvada — the only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection — is so high.The Democratic congresswoman asked Daniel O’Day, the CEO of Gilead Sciences, why the price is nearly $2,000 per month for the drug in the U.S. when it costs only $8 per month in Australia. "Truvada still has patent protection in the United States, and in the rest of the world, it is generic," said O'Day, who argued at the Thursday hearing before a House Oversight and Reform Committee meeting that the U.S. government claim on Truvada's patent is invalid.Ocasio-Cortez contested O'Day's assertion, pointing out that Gilead has garnered $3 billion in revenue from Truvada while the federal government, which issued $50 million in grants to researchers to develop PrEP in Atlanta labs, has not received a dime. By John Paul Bramme r. July 17, 2018.