For media inquiries, please contact Michael Chancley, Communications and Mobilization Manager at [email protected]. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

New York, NY, January 13, 2026–PrEP4All and the PrEP Users Union welcome the news that Gilead Sciences and CVS Caremark have finally reached a deal to include lenacapavir (brand name Yeztugo), a groundbreaking six-month injectable version of PrEP, on CVS’s drug formulary. In October, PrEP4All and the Union sent a sign on letter from over 500 PrEP users and supporters to leadership at both companies, urging them to uphold their stated corporate commitments to equitable healthcare, and prioritize access to lenacapavir over profit. The PrEP users’ letter secured an unusually transparent response from CVS expressing frustration over the high price set by Gilead for the long acting injectable PrEP. 

“Given the opportunities lenacapavir presents, the news that CVS had declined to add lenacapavir to its formulary due to Gilead’s inflexibility on Yeztugo’s high price tag was very disappointing,” explained PrEP Users Union Manager, Michael Chancley. “By bringing the demands of PrEP users directly to CVS and Gilead leadership, we were able to shine a light on where corporate greed was getting in the way of access to innovation, and we hope it played a part in helping both companies come to the table and secure this outcome.”

With a list price of $28,000 per year, many hurdles to equitable access remain, however the agreement between Gilead and CVS addresses a significant barrier in getting the long-acting injectable PrEP to those who need it. PrEP advocates are eager to see full scale up of lenacapavir following the groundbreaking results of the initial PURPOSE trials which demonstrated nearly 100% protection from acquiring HIV, including no new HIV infections in a trial in women after years of often disappointing results in efficacy trials involving other PrEP options.

“We were optimistic for this outcome given that Gilead has already secured agreements with the nation’s two other major pharmacy benefit managers; presumably, there was going to be a price point upon which both CVS and Gilead could also agree,” explained Jeremiah Johnson, Executive Director of PrEP4All. “But in America’s corporatized healthcare landscape, nothing can be taken for granted. Affected communities must loudly advocate for themselves to ensure that PBMs, drug manufacturers, and insurers do not needlessly limit access to medication in order to make a few extra bucks.”