California Improves Access to HIV Prevention Pill (APLA)

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California Improves Access to HIV Prevention Pill

Important new tool in fighting AIDS, Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be up to 99% effective in preventing new infections

Friday, April 18, 2014 — Three leading California AIDS organizations – AIDS Project Los Angeles, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and Project Inform in San Francisco – today applauded California’s Medi-Cal program for easing access to a well-established AIDS medication that has been proven to prevent HIV infection in at risk individuals.

The action lifts a requirement that doctors complete an authorization request when prescribing PrEP for HIV negative individuals. PrEP is the brand drug Truvada, an AIDS drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences in Foster City, CA. The action is effective immediately and will be published in Medi-Cal’s June Provider Bulletin.

Many in the HIV/AIDS community consider PrEP a groundbreaking HIV prevention tool. The authorization request is considered an obstacle for both doctors and patients. With Medi-Cal’s action, doctors will now be able to prescribe the drug for men and women who test HIV negative and indicate that they are “at risk” of infection through HIV exposure.

“The Medi-Cal ruling is a game changer in HIV prevention,” said AIDS Project Los Angeles Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. “Appropriate access to PrEP through Medi-Cal provides us with another intervention – along with safer sex and condom use – to reduce the number of new HIV infections.”

“Medi-Cal’s action also brings an element of health equity to the program’s low-income beneficiaries,” Thompson said. “Private insurance plans have been covering PrEP for some time, often without prior authorization.”

http://www.apla.org/news-and-multimedia/news/press-releases/california-improves-access-to.html