CIFF to Power PrEP Revolution with Up to $2 Million for Immediate Access to PrEP Rings – Press Releases

CIFF to Power PrEP Revolution with $2 Million for Immediate Access to PrEP Rings

July 21, 2024

– The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), in partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), announced on July 21 on the twenty fifth International AIDS Conference an initiative value as much as $2 million over the 2024-2025 period to buy roughly 150,000 dapivirine vaginal rings in countries implementing Global Fund grants to fight HIV and AIDS. The PrEP ring is a long-acting HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) option for ladies.

In 2022, 1.3 million people acquired HIV, falling far in need of the goal of eliminating HIV and AIDS by 2030. Expanding access to PrEP and other prevention tools, together with increasing treatment coverage and suppressing viral loads, is vital to stopping latest infections and breaking the cycle of transmission. The PrEP ring is designed to assist reduce the likelihood of ladies acquiring HIV during vaginal sex.

“The PrEP ring gives women and girls a discreet option that is completely within their control,” said Miles Kemplay, Executive Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHR), CIFF. “For too long, pricing has made this option inaccessible – this partnership is the first step in making the market more sustainable and increasing access for those who need it.”

The PrEP ring is manufactured by Sever Pharma Solutions in Sweden for the Population Council. The next-generation PrEP ring, which can last three months, will soon undergo regulatory review.

The partnership between CIFF and the Global Fund, which can begin in October, goals to support early product introduction to seed the marketplace for wider adoption of the PrEP ring. In collaboration with other partners, including Unitaid, it also goals to bridge the gap to introduce a less expensive, three-month PrEP ring and/or a PrEP ring manufactured in Africa, resulting in lower prices in the long run.

Currently, the monthly ring costs $12.80/month of use. The initiative announced today will create a bridge to the three-month PrEP ring, which can cost lower than $16, excluding distribution, a price reduction of just about 60% per 30 days. Several options for further price reductions have been identified and are currently being explored.

“In many parts of the world, the rate of new HIV infections among teenage girls and young women is more than three times higher than among teenage boys and young men,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “This is unacceptable. We are confident that this new PrEP ring has the potential to be transformative. Girls and women have expressed their desire to have a PrEP ring, and today’s announcement is another milestone in a series of innovative approaches to providing it.”

“We congratulate CIFF and the Global Fund for their continued commitment to purchasing DapiRing,” said Bríd Devlin, Scientific Director on the Population Council’s Centre for Biomedical Research. “It is crucial that women are offered a range of HIV prevention methods, including DapiRing, to meet their diverse sexual health needs and that they can use them on their own terms. Giving women choice in HIV prevention is the best way to end the AIDS epidemic.”

Expanding the range of accessible HIV prevention options, similar to the PrEP ring, is a key demand from activist groups and a necessary a part of the HIV Prevention Choices for Women and Girls in Africa Manifesto.

“The ring is a powerful tool that is revolutionary as the first approved, long-acting prevention tool, especially for women and adolescent girls who often cannot negotiate condom use and find the pill burden of oral PrEP not discreet enough,” said Yvette Raphael, executive director of Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS (APHA) in South Africa and chair of the African Women Prevention Community Accountability Board. “It gives women and girls another option. Choosing HIV prevention is very important, and making the ring available to young women is our responsibility.”

Since last yr, the Global Fund has facilitated PrEP ring purchases in Cambodia, Eswatini, Ghana, Indonesia, Mozambique, Uganda and South Africa. Purchases in Mozambique and Uganda were supported partially by CIFF’s PrEP Matching Fund.

The next few years will likely be critical for HIV prevention. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is gaining increasing attention, and the WHO will issue latest guidelines on the topic on the International AIDS Conference.

“The Global Fund is committed to ensuring equitable access to quality-proven, affordable HIV prevention options and is working with partners and industry to shape and build a sustainable market, including injectable lenacapavir,” said Hui Yang, Director of Supply Operations on the Global Fund.

The PrEP ring has received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). To date, regulatory authorities in Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe have approved the PrEP ring, and regulatory applications are pending in other countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the PrEP ring from 2021 as a further preventive alternative for ladies at significant risk of HIV infection as a part of a combined prevention approach.

“A lot is happening and there is a lot of work to do to reduce time to market and ensure equitable access to products to achieve the 2030 goals,” said Vuyiseka Dubula, director of communities, rights and gender on the Global Fund.

The Global Fund and CIFF have partnered to fight HIV since 2015, when CIFF committed $10 million to support childhood HIV treatment and expand access to treatment in Zimbabwe and Kenya. In 2019, CIFF and the Global Fund launched a $25 million catalytic investment to expand access to HIV self-testing in Cameroon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. In 2022, CIFF committed $33 million to the Global Fund to support accelerated access to PrEP and PEP for populations that need it most in Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.

CIFF is an independent philanthropic organization with offices in Addis Ababa, Beijing, London, Nairobi and New Delhi. Founded in 2002, CIFF works with a broad range of partners to create a healthy, just and secure world for kids. Areas of labor include child health and nutrition, sexual and reproductive health and rights, opportunities for women and young women, child protection and catalyzing climate motion.