Gilead starts marketing Truvada as preventative against HIV

Gilead Sciences Inc has started marketing its HIV treatment Truvada to prevent infection with the Aids virus.

The company introduced Truvada to the US market in 2004 for HIV treatment and in 2012 won approval to market it for Aids prevention.  Two large peer-reviewed studies had shown it was effective at preventing infections in healthy people.

The company, however decided against promoting the drug as a preventative treatment, over fears voiced by patient advocates that it could encourage promiscuity and unsafe practices, such as having sex without condoms.

Even without help from Gilead, many consumers learned Truvada was more than 90 per cent effective in tests at preventing HIV infection. In 2014, the drug was recommended as an option for people at high risk of HIV infection by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Around 90,000 people in the US used the drug for prevention, or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), last quarter. The number was up from 60,000 to 70,000 earlier this year, the company said. Usage was also growing in France, where about 2,000 people had been prescribed Truvada for prevention since January.

Meanwhile, a drug which could reduce the risk of HIV infection would go on trial in South Australia, the state government had announced.

The drug called PrEP - short for pre-exposure prophylaxis would be available to eligible South Australians who did not have HIV and who were at high risk of acquiring the virus.

According to the government it would begin talks with other states that were leading PrEP access trials and said modelling indicated about 500 South Australians might be eligible to be part of the trial.

Participants would be prescribed a daily oral pill.

The past five years had seen an average of 58 HIV infections notified in South Australia each year.

According to premier Jay Weatherill, it was an important new trial for HIV prevention medication.

"The State Government is committed to providing the best possible health care for South Australians and our impending trial of this valuable medication is another example of this," Weatherill said.