Pakistan’s Ferozsons to manufacture US-based Gilead's HIV prevention drug

Ferozsons Laboratories Limited (FEROZ), a Pakistani pharmaceutical company, has joined a select group of global manufacturers in Gilead Sciences’ expanded royalty-free licensing programme for its investigational once-yearly lenacapavir for HIV prevention, covering 120 high-incidence countries. The listed pharma disclosed the development in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday. “The agreement, expanded from the existing twice-yearly lenacapavir for HIV prevention access strategy, covers 120 high-incidence countries (which are primarily low- and lower- middle-income) and will support manufacturing readiness, technology transfer and future supply planning while the Phase 3 PURPOSE 365 trial is ongoing,” read the notice. If approved, once yearly lenacapavir could provide a full year of HIV prevention with a single dose, expanding prevention choice and helping address barriers that can limit pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake and persistence, said FEROZ. The pharma shared that twice-yearly lenacapavir is approved in multiple countries as PrEP to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV in adults and adolescents who are at risk of HIV acquisition. “Lenacapavir is