This medication, injectable cabotegravir, will be fully covered, given its nature "irreplaceable and particularly expensive"According to this decree published in the Official Journal, a preventive treatment for HIV, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is already available in France, but, taken in tablet form, it requires very frequent administration, with a risk of poor adherence or abandonment of treatment.
Cabotegravir, marketed under the name Apretude by ViiV Healthcare – a subsidiary of the British pharmaceutical company GSK – is administered as an injectable drug every two months. Many experts and organizations have already praised the potential of this medication to reduce the number of HIV infections. The United Nations specialized agency, UNAIDS, was already referring to it in 2020 as a treatment that could... "A game changer."
The actual price reimbursed by health insurance remains confidential.
“A major breakthrough in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” The French association Aides welcomed the injectable PrEP on Thursday, February 26, noting that it will be particularly beneficial for people for whom "Adherence to oral PrEP was particularly difficult (...) to access this prevention tool"This market launch had been anticipated for almost two years in France: the High Authority for Health (HAS) had validated its benefits in the summer of 2024, while nevertheless expressing reservations by seeing it only as an improvement "moderate" of the medical service provided.
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Since then, the marketing of the treatment has been suspended pending price negotiations between health authorities and ViiV Healthcare, which officially sells a dose of Apretude for over €1,000. However, the actual price reimbursed by the national health insurance remains confidential.
Not all people living with HIV or exposed to the virus are eligible.
Although enthusiastic, Aides is concerned about the need, in order to benefit from injectable PrEP, to "to perform an HIV viral load test" who is not, "Not supported at 100%"So there will be "a remaining cost for the individual", possibly "Covered by a health insurance plan" "Solenn Bazin, advocacy and prevention officer at Aides, emphasizes this on Thursday on the Aides website.
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Furthermore, not all people living with HIV or exposed to the virus are eligible: the HAS does not recommend this treatment for women of childbearing age, due to a "potential risk of malformation" in the fetus.
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