On American television will advertise PrEP

The American biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences will launch television advertising for the ARV drug Truvada as a means for pre-exposure prevention of HIV infection (PrEP). Representatives of Gilead said that the videos will appear on television in June and will be shown until the end of August. Advertising, explained the authors of the project, "is designed to activate conversations about sexual health and raise public awareness about HIV prevention."

PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis involves the daily admission of a single ARVT tablet for the prevention of HIV infection in an HIV-negative partner in a discordant pair.

Clinical studies have shown that PrEP, also known as the Truvada brand, is safe and effective as an HIV prevention program, but only when it is taken daily and systematically.

The use of Truvada as HIV prevention in at-risk groups is also recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada for the prevention of HIV infection in 2012.

As NBC News writes, Gilead first hoped to use the public health institution to promote Truvada as a PrEP. For example, in New York, PrEP advertising for several years was located in the metro and on city buses, and the District of Columbia Health Department earlier this year conducted its own advertising campaign in support of HIV prevention measures.

The manufacturer itself spent insignificant sums on the promotion of Truvada - only a few hundred thousand dollars a year - in comparison with more than $ 100 million only in 2017 to promote the drug against hepatitis C Harvoni.

According to Gilead, since 2012 it has been allocated more than $ 28 million to promote PrEP, that is, on average less than $ 5 million per year.

The name of the new advertising campaign Gilead - "Healthy sex." The first video series - a 30-second video called "Honestly", which presents people from among LGBT, transgender and African Americans.

"Honestly, we had to use a condom, but we were busy," one gay man tells his partner in bed.

"Honestly, we were together for a while, so testing has never occurred to me," - says another video heroine, a young African-American woman.

Advertising encourages viewers to visit the site honestlyitstime.com, which redirects them to the portal healthsexuals.com.

The Gilead website provides a range of resources to all interested, including telling where to find friendly LGBT doctors for PrEP appointment, and places to get free condoms.

"In some areas or communities, the concentration of HIV is higher than in others," says the website. "This means that if you have sex in areas or communities where HIV is more common, the risk of infection may be higher."

Preventing HIV infection with PrEP is based on making sure that people at risk of infection take preventive measures.

"In developing this campaign, it was important for us that the materials included different people who are representatives of the groups most at risk of HIV infection, including young Afro- and Latino-American MSM, as well as female cis-genders and transgender people," said Gilead .

A number of experts and public health representatives have already spoken out about a new advertising campaign.

"What I really liked about advertising," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, "is not just a statement that you need to start taking PrEP, but a specific call for testing for HIV ".

According to Gilead, the advertising campaign Healthysexual started in 2016. It was available on digital platforms, such as Tumblr, and in print media.

A new advertising campaign will be the first experience of promoting PrEP through television. Note, however, that the first Gilead video will not specifically mention "Truvada" or "PrEP". The subsequent video of the company, which will be released in the middle of summer, will tell about them.

Recall that in March CDC published the analysis, which showed that more than a million Americans can benefit from the use of PrEP. However, the estimates published by Gilead earlier this month indicate that only 167,000 people take Truvada daily as a prophylaxis.

"There are a lot of people who can benefit from PrEP, those who are at risk and are not really very knowledgeable about pre-exposure prophylaxis," Fauchi said.

In view of this, the specialist expects that a new advertising campaign will allow more people to learn about alternative HIV prevention options.