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Comment by adrianN | Hacker News Reader

Antivirals are too expensive for most of the world.

Exactly this. PreP costs >$20,000 a year.

It's around US$350 a year in Australia [1] under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (Around US$500 without subsidies). For low-income people, it's around $40 a year. No idea how much less the Indian generics they'd be using in South Africa cost.

Unaffordable pharmaceuticals is a purely American problem and I have no idea why you guys think it's normal or put up with it.

[1] https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/100885/tenofovir-dis...

What are we supposed to do? Corporations own the government and the people who can afford guns support it.

You mention guns, but I'm honestly surprised that pharmaceutical executives being gunned down by grieving family members isn't a daily occurrence.

Given the number of gun owners and the number of pharmaceutical companies that let people die in agony to keep the medical insurance industry afloat, it should surely be a serious enough problem to warrant changes in corporate policy.

There are two relatively straightforward things you can do that will help the situation: (a) vote, and (b) campaign to move to get some form of proportional representation become the voting system in your state, both for statewide and national elections.

A major reason why you've entrenched interests is that they have safe seats they can depend on. The US has major issues with acts of gerrymandering that create those safe seats. Most forms of PR are much more resistant to gerrymandering than FPTP is. And if you want people who'll do something regarding healthcare costs, you need to get rid of those safe seats and make them accountable.

start showing up for elections, for example

Some of us don’t think it’s normal, nor do we want to put up with it. Fully 60% of the voting population is deeply invested in seeing their team win regardless of what policies they support. We have to fight both democrats and republicans to make any progress. It’s a tough row to hoe.

Ummm… no?

It’s cheap in Australia because it’s generic. It’s generic now in the US too, and guess what? It’s $40 per month in the US.

https://m.goodrx.com/truvada?sort_type=popularity

Fair enough. I took the other guy at his word when he said it was $20k. It's definitely not uncommon for pharmaceuticals to cost an order of magnitude (or two) more in the US compared to other countries.

At least in Belgium (where there are several generics available besides the 'brand' Truvada), my out of pocket cost is 5 euro for a month's supply.

If you take PrEP periodically (2+1+1) that will even last you a lot longer (depending on the frequency of course). I am very glad PrEP exists, and already optimistic about its impact in reducing transmissions. But if we can replace this with a one-shot vaccine, that would be groundbreaking.

It's not going to be a one-shot vaccine. The least I would think have even the possibility of working is six initial shots (not all the same) given on a very strict schedule, followed by a booster every six months. I would not be surprised if it was twice that for something that actually worked.

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