UK: LGBT+ health adviser urges Britain to make HIV-prevention drug free

Britain’s first national adviser for LGBT+ health has said the roll-out of a highly effective HIV prevention pill could save hundreds of thousands of pounds for the country’s publicly funded health authority.

In an exclusive interview Michael Brady, who will take up the role on April 1, said a planned roll-out of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - a once-daily pill that protects against HIV – in England would prove cost effective “very quickly”.

“For me, the argument has always been one of cost effectiveness not cost,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“There is no doubt about the cost effectiveness of PrEP... you actually put money back into the NHS pot very quickly by not having to spend £300,000 on lifetime treatment costs for (a patient living with) HIV.” Read more via Reuters