This World AIDS Day, Let’s Reflect on Progress and Demand Action
December 1, 2025
Today, December 1st, marks a crucial day to recognize the progress made in the HIV response and demand action to eliminate the vast inequities that continue to face populations living with HIV around the world. Biomedical innovation has unlocked prevention and treatment options that can transform efforts to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat. Despite these advancements, systemic barriers to global access are prevalent, and millions of people are not receiving the prevention, treatment, or care that they need.
UAEM is dedicated to improving affordability and access to every life-saving medication worldwide, and we strive to recognize World AIDS Day as a sign not only of progress made in science but also as a day to demand more.
The transformative impact of biomedical innovation is overwhelmingly evident in the case of lenacapavir, a life-saving HIV medication that can revolutionize the HIV response through its twice-a-year injection that can both prevent HIV infection before exposure and help treat it when combined with other medicines. The drug has the power to improve treatment efficiency, lower costs, and save millions of lives. Yet, pharmaceutical greed is delaying access for those who need.
Gilead Sciences, the company behind lenacapavir, has signed licensing agreements that will provide 120 high-incidence, resource-limited countries with lenacapavir at $40 per person per year by 2027. But for the low- and middle-income countries (LMICS) excluded from the agreements, including 26 countries where more than one in four new HIV acquisitions occur, Gilead will maintain their monopoly, leaving lenacapavir priced out of reach for many.
Meanwhile, global aid cuts have threatened the infrastructure needed for an effective rollout, and Gilead is stalling registration in LMICs, further delaying access. To ensure timely global access to this lifesaving drug, UAEM along with other activists call upon Gilead to break their monopoly, end regulatory delays, and provide true access to communities for only $40 a year in all LMICs.
Furthermore, the foundational discoveries for lenacapavir came from 12 years of NIH-funded research at the University of Utah by Dr. Wesley Sundquist. Gilead based its drug on this publicly-funded research, but is now prioritizing profit over people. This sort of drug gate-keeping is what led to the inception of UAEM.
UAEM was founded in 2001, when Yale law student Amy Kapczynski and others worked alongside Médecins Sans Frontières to persuade Yale and Bristol-Myers Squibb to not enforce their patent on stavudine, a Yale-developed antiretroviral HIV treatment, in South Africa. Their success, along with the subsequent 30-fold price reduction of stavudine in sub-Saharan Africa, inspired others and sparked a worldwide movement of university students working to ensure global access to life-saving medications.
Currently, UAEM’s 100 chapters span 20 countries and six continents, united by a vision of a world where publicly-funded drugs are accessible to those in need, no matter where they live. Stavudine’s inventor, Dr. William Prusoff, played an instrumental role in Bristol-Myers Squibb relinquishing their patent in South Africa. His outspoken support of the student-led campaign and his wish to have his innovation accessible in lower-income countries influenced the pharmaceutical company’s decision-making.
Today, we encounter a similar situation, one where the fruits of a publicly-funded HIV treatment are yet again unaffordable and inaccessible to many worldwide. UAEM will continue to stand against this injustice and demand action from Gilead to ensure affordable access to lenacapavir globally.
This blog was written by Pranav Pinapala, Anna Ramasamy, Rahil Modi, and Faith Choi, members of UAEM’s Access Team.