Gilead neglected a vulnerable HIV population

In designing its HIV prevention study, Gilead decided to omit cisgender women from clinical trials for its pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug Descovy.

Doing so was negligent, opines Dr. Oni Blackstock, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV at the New York City Health Department. After all, half of the 38 million people living with HIV are women, and young women are at a higher risk of contracting the disease than men.

Gilead’s rationale was that it would consume too many resources to test out the drug in vulnerable women. So, instead, Descovy has been tested out — and FDA approved — only in men who have sex with men, and transgender women. But those “at risk from receptive vaginal sex” haven’t been sanctioned to take the potentially life-saving drug.