Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), used to prevent transmission of the HIV, will be routinely available on the NHS in Wales.
The announcement comes after more than 1,200 people who have been prescribed PrEP recorded no new diagnoses of HIV, Vaughan Gething, Welsh minister for health and social services has said recently.
The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) has recommended the drug following the necessary trials withdrawing its previous stand which advised the Welsh government not to fund PrEP on cost grounds.
Gething said: “We have also benefited from the emergence of generic versions of PrEP that are available to the NHS at a greatly reduced price when compared to the proprietary product.
“This, together with the interim data collected in the PrEPARED study addressing some of the uncertainty in the initial appraisal, has meant AWMSG have now advised me that in all scenarios, PrEP is likely to be cost-effective, irrespective of any remaining uncertainties.
“I have …endorsed AWMSG’s updated recommendation that PrEP continues to be routinely available in Wales, not as part of a study, but as part of routine NHS care for all people for whom it is clinically appropriate.”
In 2017, AWMSG’s suggestion was that the use of PrEP could not be recommended for routine use given the uncertainties around the levels of cost-effectiveness in their appraisal of the only licensed medicine available for PrEP at the time, the proprietary product Truvada.
In the three years since the PrEPARED study began, over 1,200 people have been prescribed PrEP and there have been no new diagnoses of HIV amongst people taking PrEP in Wales.
