Hi CC. Today has been pretty crazy with the posts so here’s a simpler one (hopefully)!

I’m sure I’m a little behind because I rarely watch tv, but I came across a commercial for an oral HIV prevention drug that’s only for men and transgender women. The commercial specifically states “Descovy is not for people who were assigned female at birth.”

I’ve taken a few sections from an article:

“Gilead Sciences, which manufactures Truvada, sought Food and Drug Administration approval to market Descovy, its anti-HIV therapy, as a PrEP regimen. According to the company, it would have required too many resources to enroll a sufficient number of cisgender women into a trial and closely monitor their adherence to the daily pill regimen. The company presented the FDA with data only from a clinical trial involving men who have sex with men, and transgender women.

Gilead’s decision to exclude cisgender women from its clinical trials for Descovy appears nothing short of profit-driven.

The lack of cisgender women in clinical trials of HIV drugs and the FDA’s willingness to tolerate studies that do not include them are indicative of a broader and more systemic disregard for women’s health.”

I won’t post a whole bunch of screenshots and tidbits from the article, but apparently it wasn’t tested on ciswomen even though they make up more than half of the 38 million people living with HIV worldwide.

I feel like this is discrimination. Not only towards women, but towards men too? Like a blatant disregard for women’s health and an assumption that gay men/trans men are the only ones (over-exaggerating) who can contract HIV?

How do they expect to continue to fight and hopefully end the HIV epidemic by excluding females? What do you think? We’re probably not surprised at all, are we?

Link for reference that won’t work:

https://www.statnews.com/2019/11/25/descovy-trials-excluded-cisgender-women-bad-call/